How to use Twitter DMs for marketing

Focusing your efforts on your Twitter feed, ads and content? While this can be an extremely good use of your time, never underestimate the simplicity of one-to-one communication. Though the humble DM is so often overlooked, the effect it can have on customers and business connections can be just as powerful as any other part of your marketing efforts.

Here are 5 ways to make an impact through Twitter DMs.

Warm Up Cold Leads

When someone new follows your brand they are showing an interest in your business. Simply welcoming a new follower, perhaps with a promotional offer, can be enough to leave a lasting impression. This is an opportunity to set yourself apart from your competitors, through providing a personal approach by setting up a direct line of communication from the start.

Reach Out To Potential Customers

When someone on Twitter shares a problem they are having which could be helped with your brand’s products or services, this is the perfect opportunity to reply to their tweet. Offer direct communication with them by explaining how you can help and encouraging them to DM your account.

You can listen out for opportunities like this using a listening tool such as Google Alerts. Another option is to search manually for phrases on Twitter that could be the foot in the door your business can leverage.

Connect With Other Businesses

Whether you want to strike up a deal with an influencer or provide opportunities in a B2B environment, the DM might just be the perfect place to make this happen. As other businesses will most probably have their Twitter DMs set up to allow private DMs from anyone, use this opportunity to connect. Do your research before contacting any company to make sure the communication with them makes sense both ways.

Continue A Conversation

If you’ve been having a conversation publicly on Twitter, either with a potential customer or a potential business connection, go the extra mile with a follow-up DM. Simply saying you enjoyed the conversation could be enough to develop your casual encounter into the start of a genuine, deeper connection.

Customer Service Issues

Taking customer service issues off your feed and into the DMs keeps a brand looking professional, but it also allows you to help customers more efficiently. Away from the public eye you can ask for specific customer details such as their order number, full name, and other sensitive information relevant to solving their problem.

Some brands create entire Twitter profiles as a help and customer service channel. This is really smart to do if you have a lot of traffic on your Twitter profile and want to keep problems separate to your main channel of communication. It also makes it so much easier to have a team ready to take messages, while customers feel there is a system in place ready to help them with their needs.

There’s a saying that goes, “People might not remember what you did, but they’ll remember how you made them feel.” As a brand, how are you going above and beyond to make your customers and business connections feel valued? The humble Twitter DM can go a long way to make people feel heard and helped, while giving you an opportunity to reach out and form new connections.

Keep track of how customers feel about your brand on Twitter using the mentions feature on Minter.io. Here you can easily assess the sentiment rate of Twitter mentions and the hashtags that accompany them, along with a whole host of additional features to optimise your Twitter presence and get to know your audience.