How are you using the web to find new clients?

[helpfulhand]

What kind of internet marketing tools are you guys using to find perspective clients? Is there anything in particular that's actually generating leads? Let me know.

 

[Bill Simmons]

So, is this your site? Needls - Coming Soon A social media lead generation software tool? I would be interested to know where the stat "leads from social media result in 71% more sales" can be verified.

 

[craigh]

Bill, did you miss the slide after that one?
It's true. No questions asked.

 

[Manny Luna]

Time for some free trails

 

[helpfulhand]

Hi Bill. We didn't come up with that stat out of thin air. Good on you for asking. Here's where we got that number from: 71% More Likely to Purchase Based on Social Media Referrals [Infographic]

 

[craigh]

Hi Bill. We didn't come up with that stat out of thin air. Good on you for asking. Here's where we got that number from: 71% More Likely to Purchase Based on Social Media Referrals [Infographic]

Not only is most of that data fairly dated (sources from 2009-2011), but the source appears to be a single study done by HubSpot on one of their own clients. What do they say? Although I can't find the source of the number, some infographic claims that Customers are 71% more likely to purchase if they were referred to that site by social media. The counter stat they use to that is that customers are 7% likely to purchase if they were not referred by social media.

They're basically saying that social media referrals have a closing rate of 11.97%, which is 71% higher than non-social media referrals.
That doesn't equate to "Leads from social media result in 71% more sales". If this stat was recent and accurate, it would mean "Leads from social media referrals have a 71% better chance of resulting in a sale".
The 71% number came from an in-house case study done on one company (Cool Products) and the case study has been removed from their website as far as I can see. Cool Products is the type of site that would benefit from social media - unique gifts and items. If someone clicks the link on social, they probably do have interest in that unique product. I don't believe this statistic should be applied to other industries as if it's a fact.

Either way, it's a statistic from years ago.
Last year, the eCommerce Quarterly Report found that conversion rates for email (3.2%) were higher than both search (2%) and social (0.7%). Additionally, social media's add-to-cart rate was also lowest of the three at 3.2%, compared to 6.8% for search and 10.5% for email.

The Q1 report for 2014 also showed continuous trends in a downward direction.

Furthermore, year-over-year traffic numbers for search, social and advertising are down 10 percent, 39 percent and 41 percent, respectively, with year-over-year shares of referring traffic for social and advertising down as well.