Leads vs. Lurkers: How to Spot the Difference (and Use Hand-Raiser Content to Find Clients Sooner)
You have 15 mins today to interact with potential clients online - who should you go to first? Or you only have time to write a well-thought-out answer to one of five DM questions you got - who should get the “best” reply?
Obviously, the answer is your hottest leads… but other than the people that have directly inquired, how do you actually know who’s even a lead from your audience?
The most common answer is to look at who consistently watches your stories & engages with your posts on social media - except, pretty quickly, you’ll realize they’re not all leads, and you’ll need a better way to figure out who is.
Enter “hand raiser” content - a simple way of getting people to show you their interest much earlier than when they’re ready to “officially” inquire.
But first, who engages with your content?
Generally, 4 categories of people will engage with your business online:
- Leads - these are people/businesses actually looking for your services, either now or in the future
- Network/peers - these are people who love to cheer you on, and will be the first to support everything you do (rarely actually purchase anything tho)
- Others nurturing you as a prospective client - they want to stay front of your mind, so that if/when you’re interested in a service like theirs, you’ll think of them first (sometimes, but not always, it can be kinda obvious)
- Lurkers - they’ll be your number one fans on everything free/cheap, but have no intention of ever signing up for anything or committing to a ‘real’ purchase, and rarely contribute anything meaningful to the ‘conversation’
- (rarely) Market Research - competitors sampling/testing your automations & processes, they’ll put in a fake email into your lead forms, submit inquiries, and ghost, or test your DM automations, and then never respond to follow-ups
As a business owner, your time is your most valuable resource, so one of the easiest ways to maximize the impact of your time is to focus your attention (read time) on Leads & Network/peers, while (gently) minimizing time on everyone else.
What is hand-raiser content?
We like to think about hand raiser content as a way to let people indicate they’re leads/interested super early in their decision-making process in a very low-stakes way.
To do this, it has to accomplish two things:
- Only leads would engage in it - eg, “download the exact notion dashboard I use” will get more clicks from lurkers than leads
- It can’t break their flow - eg, leaving Instagram, or even going to DMs, is too “big” an action
Examples of hand-raiser content on stories
Instagram stories are a great place to build relationships and show a more personal side of your brand. But people are usually casually consuming here, so asking them to follow a link, or jump over to DMs often gets lower response rates than “easier” options. Here are our three favorites.
Emoji buttons:
If we have a specific ask, we’ll put a button for them to simply tap, and then we’ll proactively reach out and start the DM conversation with them. When we A/B tested this for our coffee chats, using a “reply to this story” vs “tap the icon,” we received 4-5x as many taps as replies.
Polls:
A simple question like “Who’s ready..?”, “Who needs..?”, or “Who can relate…?” is a great way of asking people to self-identify themselves. You’re not asking them to buy anything, but by identifying themselves with a group that makes up your ICA, you’re able to categorize them as leads based on common pain points or identities.
Open-ended (prompted) questions:
Given a blank question box, people don’t know what to ask, but if you give them topics… suddenly people who are your ideal clients will have questions, because they have problems specific to your prompts. Based on the questions people are asking, you can fairly easily see if they’re A) just “engaging”, B) taking advantage of free coaching, or C) actually trying to find an answer to a question in your wheelhouse (your leads).
Examples of hand-raiser feed content
At this point, most people passively engage on feed & reels, so getting a like or “this is so good” comment is rarely a good indicator of what type of person they are. This is where CTAs or Call To Actions can play a bigger role in giving people a specific way to respond in which signifies they are a lead.
Choice-based CTA
This works very similarly to polls on stories; you’re going to give a couple of options of relatable statements specifically tailored to your ICA. And give them the option to reply just to the letter or the emoji that most resonates with them.
E.g., In a post about the seasonality of business, using a CTA of “What season are you in?
- Trying to get my kids to school on time & meet my client deadlines, no time for anything else (lead for systems)
- My calendar is wiiiiiidddddeeee open and I’m stress scrolling IG looking for clients (lead for sales/lead gen)
- Looking for matches to burn it all to the ground (lead for boundaries & burnout offers)”
Market Research / inviting them behind the curtain
People LOVE being included in something exclusive, behind the scenes, or VIP. As you're building new things, trialing offers, or even just prepping for a launch, you can tap into giving people “early previews” by asking them for help. If positioned correctly, only actual leads will participate, or the way they interact will highlight their true type.
Eg: In a post on quarterly planning, case study, or month end recap adding a CTA of, “based on ___ I’m thinking about launching a group program for mom’s who are struggling to meet their sales goals and show up for their families at the same time. If you’d be interested in something like this and open to answering a few questions, drop a ✋”
Ask a question
This one is the hardest to get right, but when done correctly, it’ll give you the strongest leads - because they’ll tell you the exact problem/solution to “unlock” their sale.
E.g., on a portfolio or case study post using a CTA like “if you could snap your fingers and change one thing on your website right now, what would it be?” or “what are you most excited about for your next branding photoshoot?”
Then what?
Identifying leads doesn’t guarantee sales, and it’s only the beginning. But if you’re like us, knowing who your actual leads are brings a lot into focus. You now have people you can intentionally nurture (see this blog post on genuinely engaging with leads) and have better visibility into where your leads are coming from, rather than just pumping out marketing content without a plan.
TL;DR: Identifying your pre-lead (warm) leads puts you in control rather than just hoping and waiting for sales.
If you’re struggling with how to build out your sales & marketing process or strategy, we’d love to give you a hand. On with a single call or an ongoing package, we’ll give you personalized 1-on-1 support on how you can improve your lead generation process. You can check out our current coaching packages here.