Resources Hub » Blog » Using Twitter Lead Generation Cards to Build Your Email Subscriber Lists

Article first published February 2014, updated April 2019

When Twitter introduced Lead Generation Cards in 2013, brands needed a better way to engage with their audience and convert followers into customers. Today, as brands have continued to use social media as a way to generate leads, these Lead Generation Cards evolved and grew into a brand new process: Twitter Business accounts.

Twitter now has an entire business platform—Twitter Business—where businesses and brands can optimize not only how users subscribe to your email list, but every facet of how you engage with your audience on Twitter.

How to get leads on Twitter

Twitter business is an overgrown Lead Generation Card, a place where brands and businesses can expand their reach and grow their audience by turning followers into prospects through Twitter.

Although Twitter Lead Generation Cards have evolved into an entire Twitter Business platform, the overall principle of introducing a simpler interface for Twitter users is still the same. Ultimately, generating leads on Twitter is all about making it as simple as possible to move followers from a Tweet to your profile to your website so they can convert.

Some of the best ways to generate leads on Twitter are to:

  1. Start a Twitter Business profile
  2. Connect with your already established audience, upload your current email lists, and “follow” them on Twitter
  3. Put a call-to-action button on your profile asking users to subscribe to your emails
  4.  Use #hashtags and keywords in your bio to make your business easily found
  5. Send out Tweets to the Twitter universe requesting users to follow, retweet, and subscribe

Through a Twitter Business page, you are able to generate different calls to action where customers don’t have to leave Twitter to sign up for your newsletter. According to Twitter, Twitter Business profile users increased their sales by 69% after customers started following them on Twitter.

The origin of Lead Generation Cards on Twitter

Many real-time users, like Adii Pienaar of WooThemes and Brandiing fame, experienced large success with the Lead Generation Cards back in the day. Previously, Adii’s use of Twitter Lead Generation Cards, alongside a simple fallback landing page to manually capture leads, resulted in a conversion rate of 67%.

Using website and URL cards combined with a Twitter Business account is the best route to generating leads and increasing subscriber rates.

Since the creation of Lead Generation Cards, we find that using website and URL cards combined with having a Twitter Business account is the better route in generating leads and increasing subscriber rates.

Source: Twitter

Leveraging Twitter to gather leads

Twitter was created because people were writing lengthy posts on Facebook and users didn’t necessarily want to hear it all.

Twitter is one of the earliest social media sites that restricted character counts and prompted users to voice what they thought and what they were doing as they were doing it with anyone who cared to listen.

Twitter is one of the earliest social media sites that restricted character counts and prompted users to voice what they thought and what they were doing as they were doing it with anyone who cared to listen.

Source: Wikipedia

Today, 66 million people use Twitter. It is a massive source for opinions, news, video, photos and other interactions.

According to Pew Research Center, “63% of Twitter users admit that they use their Twitter accounts to follow the news and businesses.”

Your first steps to attempt to transform these 66 million people into personal email subscribers are to start using Twitter and start tweeting.

What are Twitter Lead Generation Cards

Twitter introduced Lead Generation Cards in 2013 to allow users to connect with brands. Lead Generation Cards allow Twitter users to securely share their email addresses to connect with businesses without the hassle of leaving Twitter.

Examine this example of a Lead Generation Card:

Examine this example of a Lead Generation Card:

Source: Twitter Blog

How real businesses and brands used Twitter Generation Cards to enhance their emails

In 2014, we noticed Adii started using Twitter’s Lead Generation Cards to connect with his followers, and we were curious whether or not this signup strategy resulted in a landslide of new signups.

We got in touch with Adii to discuss how he was using this technique to promote his blog, “Making New Mistakes,“ and he immediately mentioned that he had borrowed the idea from Ryan Hoover.

Ryan showed that, if you use Twitter and have a Twitter Ads account, you can create Lead Generation Cards, which can be attached to any tweet. These Cards can include an email subscribe form for converting your followers into new signups.

Here’s an example of what one of Adii’s tweets and Cards looks like:

@chriseyin Thanks for sharing that! You might also enjoy my other content: https://t.co/5APHqYxY9W. :) — adii (@adii) January 20, 2014

Here’s an example of what one of Adii’s tweets and Cards looks like:

Wrap up

Twitter Business is Twitter’s 2.0 version of Lead Generation Cards. Businesses that have Twitter Business accounts and use a “subscribe to our newsletter” CTA button on their profiles, while also using URL cards, make it easy for Twitter users to interact with their brands and increase the number of leads they generate from the platform.

We want to give a huge thanks to Adii and Ryan for pioneering the use of Twitter Lead Generation Cards and paving the way for Twitter Business accounts that encourage their followers to sign up for their newsletters.

Wondering how you can combine the powers of email marketing and social media like Twitter? Read our post on how you can integrate these two branches for better marketing results.

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This blog provides general information and discussion about email marketing and related subjects. The content provided in this blog ("Content”), should not be construed as and is not intended to constitute financial, legal or tax advice. You should seek the advice of professionals prior to acting upon any information contained in the Content. All Content is provided strictly “as is” and we make no warranty or representation of any kind regarding the Content.
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