Quora, Pinterest and influencers for lead generation: when they are worth it

Mostly, Quora, Pinterest and influencers are not worth a local trade's time. They are worth it for a few trades, and the test is simple. Do your buyers go there to ask a question or collect ideas before they pick a supplier? If they do, go where they are. If they ask a friend, call a number from Google Maps, or wait for a dealer's visit, these platforms are a distraction and the hours belong elsewhere.

What is the test for any platform?

Ask three things about your own last ten buyers.

1. Where did they hear of a business like yours before they called?
2. Did any of them say they had been looking at pictures, reading answers, or watching someone, before they chose?
3. Would they have found you on that platform if you had been there?

If you cannot answer, phone five recent customers and ask them. It takes an afternoon. Do not let a trend article answer for your buyers. Write each answer on a line like this, and read the answers for a pattern, not a single voice.

If the same row repeats three times or more, that is your platform. If every row says "asked someone", skip all three.

When does Quora earn its hours?

Quora can suit a buyer who researches in writing and compares at length, if your own five calls say so. Think of the manager choosing a payroll package, a plant owner comparing industrial software, or a family weighing a long-term purchase that costs a lot. Someone types a real question, such as how to pick a dosing pump for a small water-treatment plant, and reads three answers.

If you sell that kind of thing, a detailed, honest answer under your own name can be found for a long time and shows that you know the subject. Do not paste a pitch. Answer the question in full, say what you would check, and mention your firm once, in the last line.

Quora is poor for anything local: a plumber in Davanagere or a clinic in Hubballi will find few readers there who can use them. It is poor too when your buyer does not write questions down.

When does Pinterest earn its hours?

Pinterest is where many people save ideas before they decide what to buy. That can work for products with a look: hand-block printed fabric, saree borders, wedding stage decor, modular interiors, planters, gifting. Buyers there are planning, and a pin that points to a page with a price range and a way to ask can sit for a long time.

Two limits. People who save pins are not people ready to pay, so the sale comes weeks later if at all, and you need a number or an email to catch them. And it rewards a steady supply of good pictures, so a trade that cannot photograph its work will struggle.

When do influencers earn their fee?

Only when their followers are your buyers in your catchment. A creator with a large following across India may send little to a bakery in Belagavi. A local creator with a modest following in that town may send more.

Before you pay anyone, check three things. Are the comments real conversation? Did their earlier posts lead people to ask where to buy? Does the audience live where you deliver or serve? Write a brief that says exactly what you want shown, and give every creator a code or a number of their own so enquiries can be traced. Our post on writing an influencer brief covers that part.

Do not pay for reach alone. Do not hand over a free product with no brief and hope.

For example: a block-print fabric maker in Jaipur and a boiler servicer in Surat

Take an invented small fabric maker in Jaipur who sells printed cotton by the metre and made-up cushion covers to interior designers and home buyers across India. Their buyers collect colour and pattern ideas before they order. A few boards of room pictures, each pointing to a page with a sample request, suit the product.

The mistake came when the owner asked the same agency to also run Quora answers and a paid creator campaign for the same fabrics. Quora brought a few readers who wanted printing tips, not fabric. The creator, a lifestyle account with followers far away, brought likes and no orders. The owner kept Pinterest and gave up the other two. Pinterest itself is slow: most weeks brought one or two sample requests, and some of those were students, not buyers.

Now take an invented boiler servicing firm in Surat that works for textile and chemical units. Its five-call table came back with one answer in every row: the plant engineer rang a colleague, then asked a supplier. None of the three platforms reaches that conversation.

The firm's first plan was a creator who makes videos about factories. Its better move was duller. Walk the nearby industrial estates with a notebook and write down every plant that runs a boiler. Then ring the maintenance head of each with one question: when is your next inspection due, and who handles it now? Rules for boiler inspection are set by the state, so the firm asks the plant what its own inspector requires and promises nothing about compliance. The engineers who answer become a list the firm can call when inspections fall due.

How do I run a small trial without wasting a quarter?

Pick one platform. Decide in advance what counts as success: the number of people who give you a name and number, not the number who like a post. Give the trial a set number of weeks you choose, and put a way to trace enquiries, a code word or a separate number, on everything. When the time is up, count and decide. The sales process hub shows where these enquiries enter the path to an order.

Choosing one

Ask your five most recent buyers where they looked before they called, and match the answer to a platform on this page, or to none. If you want to go through the answers with us, see influencer and creator marketing or tell us what you need.