Introduction. The traditional content for leads conversion funnel looks a bit like this: sent to new lead with link to content

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2 Introduction. Content marketing comes in many shapes and sizes. Today we are going to focus on everyone s favourite, using free digital content for lead generation. Savvy marketers have been distributing a wealth of knowledge around the web in exchange for the opportunity to start a conversation. By picking useful content close to a brand proposition, it s possible to increase brand awareness and convert new leads. In fact, this guide is part of our cunning plan to convert you into one of our lovely Driftrock.com customers (plug 1)! We will follow up later with how this campaign goes. The traditional content for leads conversion funnel looks a bit like this: Various marketing channels Blog post to get prospects excited Form to fill out in exchange for content sent to new lead with link to content Prospective customer reads your content Sales team or further s convert customers $ in the bank This is all great, but it s a long conversion funnel and difficult to seed. We are going to take you through a nifty ad product by Twitter that can amplify, seed and increase the conversion rate from your content marketing campaigns. Enter Twitter Lead Generation cards, and here s how to use them.

3 About the author. Matt Wheeler Matt is the Founder of Driftrock, a suite of marketing tools designed to give digital marketers an unfair advantage over competitors. Matt created his first SEO campaign when he was 14, back when Yahoo directory submission still transformed businesses! Before founding Driftrock, Matt worked with various brands, as a marketing mentor and Founding Partner Specialising in technical marketing he helps businesses grow ideas to products with tens, or hundreds of thousands

4 What are Twitter Lead Generation Cards? Lead Generation Cards are the first ad product from Twitter that focuses on direct response marketing. Like all Twitter Cards, the Lead Generation Card can be expanded to reveal additional functionality and content in a tweet. When users come across a Lead Generation Card on Twitter, clicking the call to action button sends the address that the user has on record with Twitter directly to the advertiser. At this point the advertiser now has the chance to start a conversation with the user via or on directly on Twitter.

5 What makes Lead Cards perfect for content marketing? 1. Reduce the number of steps in the conversion funnel One of the big challenges with content marketing through landing page lead gen forms is the substantial conversion funnel. Fewer steps mean a better user experience and the less moving parts to optimise. Fewer steps mean a better user experience and the less moving parts to optimise. Positioning a Lead Card with a message like click here to download your free ebook is an effortless one-click action for the user. At this point advertisers can fire off an using a CRM or Driftrock s super easy Lead Response app (Plug 2), with a link to download the content. Now the user has a copy of the ebook you can begin to engage with them and build a relationship. User interacts with promoted tweet sent to new lead with link to content Prospective customer reads your content Sales team or further s convert customers $ in the bank

6 2. It s a paid channel People often make the mistake of sticking to organic channels for content marketing. This might be ok for brands with tens of thousands of followers or subscribers to seed the content. However, most of the time it s very hard to gain traction, even with the most viral content. Being a paid product it s possible to seed the Lead Cards with brand new customers, and use all of Twitter s superb interest based targeting. As a bonus, you can also use Lead Cards in standard organic tweets too. 3. Viral marketing built in However, most of the time it s very hard to gain traction, even with the most viral content. In addition to the slick conversion funnel, Lead Cards also come with out the box virality. With a click, users can retweet a Lead Card, spreading the content further. Advertisers don t pay for clicks or retweet s from people who have seen a retweet of a Promoted Tweet. We have found that highly viral Tweets can be seeded with as little as $100 through Twitter before accelerating organically. If you offer something truly noteworthy, readers will be more than happy to share with their friends. Feel free to do so now with this ebook! ;) Tweet this guide

7 Setting up a Lead Card content marketing campaign. I m going to take you through the steps on how to create a Lead Card, send content via and convert the lead to a customer. It s easy and won t require any techies. If you have content ready to go, then you can get up and running in less than 30 mins. Each step of the way I m going to suggest potential tips for optimisation to maximise your ROI. 1 Step 1 - Create or pick compelling content First up, gather some engaging content together. I m not going to go into detail on how to pick content. There are plenty of great resources. My personal favourite is the book Contagious by Jonah Berger for learning what makes certain content go viral. For content marketing through Lead Cards, the perfect content format is an ebook like this one. It s easy to send via and can be incredibly valuable to potential new customers. 2 Step 2 - Setup an auto responder Firstly, we need to setup an auto responder to the send content to each new lead that comes in through Twitter Lead Cards. With lead generation, the faster you can respond, the better. Some studies suggest that responding within the first 5 minutes increases conversion rate by as much as 900%.

8 An auto responder makes this a reality. Users will expect to click the button and find the content waiting in their inbox. There are plenty of CRM systems and providers that you can set this up with. For an advanced, custom-built auto responder, the Lead Response app on Driftrock is the perfect solution (plug 3). We built the tool to work seamlessly with Twitter Lead Cards or other lead sources so that you can manage the end-to-end process when a lead comes in, and track the conversion of the campaign down to a lead level.

9 I ll take you through how we do it on Driftrock, other providers will have similar setup journeys Create a new lead list Setup a new list for each campaign. This way it s possible to customise the s sent out for each one, monitor performance and manage spend easily Setup rules for new leads Customise the different rules and features to maximise conversion. For example, one option is to add a r er feature to send a follow up to people who don t open the the first time round. This massively increases the chance of a conversion. On Lead Response, it s also possible to fire leads off to a CRM system for newsletters or other uses. Just add an end point URL where the leads need to be sent.

10 2.3. Setup an auto responder template The sent out should be simple and to the point. Get the user to exactly where they want to go, as quickly as possible. Adding link to download a PDF is quick and easy to do. Services like can be used to upload the content and might also gain some leads through their platform too. Alternatively, host it directly on a server like Amazon S3. Driftrock Lead Response has a number of templates available to choose from to get going quickly. Just pick Content marketing and you are good to go. Obviously the sent out is a potential conversion blocker. Play with the copy, subject line and content to increase conversion rate over time. Here are some examples of templates we use. They are simple, to the point and give the user one job to do, use the coupon code!

11 2.4. Copy your submit URL Twitter Lead Cards require an end point (submit URL) to send leads to. Driftrock provides the URL at the end of the process. Other providers have similar API or form based URLs. Check out their docs if you go down that route. 3 Step 3 - Setup the Twitter campaigns 3.1. Next up is getting the campaigns live on Twitter. Login or signup to Twitter ads Create a new Twitter Lead Generation Card. Set them up in the Advertising dropdown in the top nav. If it s not there then get in touch with your Twitter account manager for access.

12 3.3. Follow the wizard. Remember that every part of the Twitter card can be optimised for conversion. It s worth adding a few variations of each card. Change things like the image, description and call to action. Getting this right can make a huge difference to the CPA. Later it s possible to create multiple tweets with each of the variants to test the most effective versions Add the submit URL. This is the URL you created earlier on Driftrock or CRM to send the leads to Save the card and start creating some promoted tweets. If you are new to Twitter s promoted Tweets then you can find lots of great info here. Best practice Twitter advertising tips would fill a whole new ebook, so we will save that for another day. In the meantime, the best advice is to experiment, experiment, experiment. Mix up the tweet copy and targeting, watching engagement ratios for each variant as soon as the Tweet goes live. The first few hours are critical. Remove poor Tweets and add variations of winners. Remember that you are optimising for Twitter Card opens in the Tweet copy, and Conversion to lead in the Lead Card copy.

13 Don t forget that although Lead Cards are setup using Twitter s ad interface, you can also use them in your organic activity. Simply create a card and add the card URL to a tweet. Twitter Lead Cards are also great for pinning to the top of your Twitter profile Go live! 4 Step 4 - Follow Up Remember, not all sales convert on the first attempt. Nurture the new lead list over time. Send out a regular newsletter and perhaps follow up in a few weeks to potential hot leads that haven t converted just yet. The beauty of lead campaigns like this is that you have opened a conversation with a prospective new customer. Engaging with them softly over time gives you multiple opportunities to convert them to a customer for the price of one lead.

14 5 Step 5 - Optimise Once the first campaign is live, get stuck into the data. As you know, all good marketing campaigns come from continual optimisation. Remove the poor performing aspects and do more of the best performing aspects. Work through each step in the funnel and optimise. Here are some of the key stages for optimising ROI: Funnel Stage Data Source Tweet engagement ratio Tweet to lead conversion rate open rate click rate Cost per lead Cost per sale ads.twitter.com = (Leads per campaign/campaign impressions)*100 Driftrock or other CRM Driftrock or other CRM = Spend/Lead = Spend/Sales Conversion rate to sale Driftrock reports or (Sales/Leads)*100

15 Drop us a note on Driftrock.com if you need help with anything. Good luck with the campaign and have fun! Matt & the Driftrock team