Marketers apparently see gold in those social media hills. LinkedIn has launched a lead generation for its platform, and now a Toronto start-up has a solution for Twitter and Facebook.
Launched last week, “needls.” Is a software as a service lead generation tool that leverages social media sites Facebook and Twitter to generate leads for small and medium-sized businesses, independent professionals and entrepreneurs. Needls quotes data from Hubspot that claims business leads from social media generate 71 per cent more sales than traditional lead sources.
“Small business owners – realtors, plumbers, event planners, and so on – are the backbone of the North American economy,” said Justin Hartzman, CEO and co-founder of Needls, in a statement. “Needls is the only social media lead generation tool designed with the small business owner in mind. The platform delivers highly qualified leads to business owners across almost every industry sector with a touch of a button.”
The Needls platform features an intent engine that uses a lift of targeted industry keywords provided by the client and filters them through Twitter and Facebook to generate relationship-based and local sales leads. The leads are delivered via email in real-time to the client.
The company says each keyword should generate one to five strong leads every month. Two types of accounts are available, a Harvester account for business owners serving one location for $39.95/month and the Cultivator account for businesses with multiple accounts at $69.95/month. Both are introductory prices.
According to Needls, most users will recoup their monthly investment with just one closed lead.
The company was founded in 2013 in Toronto by the principals of All You Can Eat Internet and WesellYourSite.com after they brainstormed creative ways to find new clients other than traditional channels such as trade shows, cost per click and expensive non-exclusive lists.