Twitter's New Lead Generation Cards: Build Your Email List

The ultimate goal of most businesses is to generate leads and turn them into customers. With inbound marketing, one of the ways that these businesses interact with prospects and grab their attention is through social media.

Twitter saw what these businesses wanted, and created a way to help them. Last June, they created "Twitter cards" that "make it possible for you to attach media experiences to tweets that link to your content".

Twitter has created an addition to their Twitter cards that is called the Lead Generation Card, and it was released on May 22.

A Lead Generation Card is similar to having a landing page within a tweet. It is an exclusive feature of Promoted Tweets, which is a paid feature of Twitter Ads, and is viewable on both desktops and mobile devices.

How to Make a Lead Generation Card

To make a Lead Generation Card through Twitter Ads, you have to create a tweet of no more than 140 characters that says something about your offer. The card will be attached and expands when the user clicks on the tweet.

You need 3 elements:

1. An image


2. A short 80 character description


3. Text for the call-to-action button

The new Lead Generation Card doesn't require the Twitter user to fill out any forms like a normal landing page does. Once they expand the tweet and see the card, all they have to do is click the call-to-action button.

It will automatically collect their:

• Name


• Email


• Twitter username

This information will be sent to your marketing software. The best part is that you just generated a potential lead without your contact even leaving Twitter. The next steps depend on you and your marketing department / company to nurture your lead(s).

Why You Should Use Lead Generation Cards

You now have a new contact to add to your email list. In order for the Twitter Lead Generation Card to work for your company, you need to come up with a lead nurturing campaign to learn more about your new contact.

Design an Autoresponse Email

You need to design an autoresponse email that will send your contacts the offer they requested; whether it's promoting a webinar, asking people to sign up for a newsletter, to receive a coupon or to download an ebook. Your email needs to match the Twitter card. Consider using the same image or some other elements that correspond with the offer. You want to let your contacts know why they are getting the email.

Develop a Twitter Marketing Campaign

Where do most of your leads come from? If a significant portion of your leads and traffic are coming from social media, specifically Twitter, consider developing a campaign to attract and nurture your leads through this platform. Think of Twitter's Lead Generation Cards as an alternative to your landing pages. Providing you with the opportunity to engage with followers and contacts. Not only should you use lead generation cards, but consider creating lead nurturing emails to interact and educate those leads you acquired through Twitter's new promoted ads.

Track the ROI of Twitter

Get more accurate information about your return on investment ROI by using Lead Generation Cards. Like other sources of traffic and leads, it's important to track your progress and to ensure that you are seeing results. See how well your marketing on Twitter is working to bring in leads and customers.

Companies Already Using Lead Generation Cards

Here are some companies currently taking advantage of Twitter's new Lead Generation Cards.

Priceline.com

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DropWines

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Make IT in Ireland

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BuyToLet.com

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Secret Escapes

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PUMA Football

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HubSpot discovered that 36% of all marketers have found a customer via Twitter in 2013. The new Lead Generation Cards can only improve this number, so will you take advantage of them?