What to Post When You Want Leads, Not Likes

Most organic content is a waste of time.

Not because social media doesn't work. It does. But most people post things that get engagement without ever moving anyone closer to buying, signing up, or reaching out.

You end up with a feed full of likes and comments that don't turn into business. That's not a strategy. That's just noise.

Here's what actually works: content that pre-sells, handles objections, builds trust, and makes your paid ads cheaper when you eventually run them.

Let me show you how.

Why likes don't pay bills

I've been there. You post something, it gets 100 likes, 20 comments, maybe a few shares. Feels good.

Then you check your inbox. Nothing. Check your form submissions. Zero. Check your sales. Crickets.

The post "performed well" according to the algorithm. But it didn't do anything for your business.

Here's the problem: engagement and intent are not the same thing.

Engagement is people reacting. The intent is for people to move closer to a decision.

Most content optimises for engagement because that's what the platforms reward. A funny meme gets likes. A relatable quote gets shares. A controversial hot take gets comments.

But none of those signals, "I'm interested in working with you" or "I might donate to this cause."

If you want leads, you need to post content that filters for intent, not just attention.

That means posting things that:

• Teach people how to solve the problem your offer solves
• Handle the objections people have before they buy
• Prove you know what you're talking about
• Make people think "I should probably reach out"

It's an entirely different approach. And honestly, this kind of content often gets fewer likes than a meme. But it generates way more business.

When I shifted from "content that performs" to "content that converts," my engagement dropped by about 30%. My leads tripled.

That's the trade-off. And it's worth it.

Content that pre-sells

Pre-selling content educates people about the value of what you offer before they see your pitch.

You're not asking for the sale in the post. You're making the sale easier later by teaching them why the solution matters.

Example: if you're a freelance digital marketing consultant who runs Meta ads for local gyms, your pre-selling content might be:

• "Why most gym ads fail (and what the good ones do differently)"
• "The three reasons people join a gym and never come back"
• "What to say in a Facebook ad if you want leads, not just likes"

None of those posts says "hire me." But they all position you as someone who understands the problem and has a solution.

When someone reads those posts and then sees your ad or your pitch a week later, they're already halfway convinced. They've seen your thinking. They trust you.

That's pre-selling. You're warming people up with free value, so the paid offer doesn't feel random or pushy.

For ngo digital marketing, this works the same way. If you're a nonprofit focused on education access, your pre-selling content might explain:

• Why school supplies matter more than people think
• How $50 changes a kid's attendance rate
• What happens when kids don't have access to books

You're not asking for donations in those posts. You're building the case for why donations matter. When the ask comes later—either in a retargeting ad or a dedicated fundraising post, people already understand the impact.

This is the foundation of the simple plan I use with clients. You pick one core message, and your organic content hammers that message from different angles until it sinks in.

Content that handles objections

Every offer has objections. Things people think or worry about before they buy.

Most businesses ignore objections and just keep posting the offer. That doesn't work.

Smart content addresses objections directly, even before people ask them.

Common objections I see:

• "This probably won't work for me"
• "I don't have time for this"
• "I've tried this before, and it didn't work"
• "How do I know this is legit?"
• "This sounds expensive"

Your content should answer these. Not in a defensive way. Just matter-of-fact, like you're explaining something to a friend who asked.

Example for a service business selling website audits:

Objection: "I already have a website, why would I need an audit?"

Content post: "Your website might look fine and still be losing you leads. Here are the three things I check that most people miss: broken forms, slow mobile load times, and unclear CTAs. You'd be surprised how many 'working' websites are quietly killing conversions."

That's objection handling. You're not being salesy. You're just explaining why the objection isn't as solid as people think.

For digital marketing for ngo campaigns, a common objection is "we don't have a budget for ads."

Your content might be: "You don't need a massive ad budget to get results. I've seen NGO campaigns run on $10/day that generated hundreds of sign-ups because the targeting and message were tight. It's not about spending more. It's about spending smart."

Now, when someone later sees your service offer or ad, that objection is already handled. They're not thinking "we can't afford this." They're thinking, "Maybe we can."

Content that proves credibility

People need proof that you know what you're doing.

Testimonials help. Case studies help. But honestly, the fastest way to prove credibility is to teach something valuable in public.

When you explain how something works, people see your expertise. They don't need a resume or a client list. They just watched you solve a problem clearly and confidently.

This is especially true if you're working as a paid social specialist or freelance consultant. Your content is your portfolio.

I post a lot of "here's what I'd do" content. Not theoretical. Tactical.

Example: "If I were launching a new service business tomorrow, here's the exact Meta ad setup I'd use: one awareness campaign to cold audiences, one engagement campaign to retarget people who watched 50% of my video, and one conversion campaign to people who visited my landing page but didn't submit the form. Budget split: 40/30/30."

That post doesn't ask for anything. But it shows I know how to structure a campaign. If someone's looking for help with Meta ads, they've just seen proof I can do it.

For social media marketing for ngo projects, credibility posts might be:

• "Here's the exact Google Ads structure I use for donation campaigns"
• "The three-email sequence that turns event sign-ups into long-term donors"
• "How I write Facebook ad copy that doesn't sound desperate or guilt-trippy"

You're teaching. You're giving away real strategy. And in doing so, you're proving you're the real deal.

People don't hire or donate to people they don't trust. Credible content builds that trust before the ask.

A realistic content week (service business example)

Let me show you what this looks like in practice.

Let's say you're a freelance marketing consultant who helps local service businesses get more leads. Here's a simple content week:

Monday: Pre-selling content
Post: "Why most local businesses waste money on Google Ads (and what to do instead)"
Format: Carousel or short-form video
Goal: Educate the cold audience on common mistakes

Wednesday: Objection handling
Post: "I don't have time to manage ads. Here's what I tell clients who say that."
Format: Text post or reel
Goal: Handle the "I'm too busy" objection

Friday: Credible content
Post: "Here's the exact landing page structure I use for service businesses. Lead gen form at the top, three benefits in the middle, one testimonial at the bottom, and a second CTA at the end."
Format: Screenshot or infographic
Goal: Show expertise

Sunday: Proof/results
Post: "Quick win this week: helped a plumber go from 2 leads/month to 18 in 30 days by fixing one thing, his Google Ads keyword match type."
Format: Results post (screenshot of dashboard or simple graphic)
Goal: Social proof

That's four posts. None of them is a "hire me" post. But all four are moving people closer to reaching out.

You'd plan this in something like Notion or Trello, so you're not scrambling for content ideas every morning. I batch-plan content once a week and schedule it to go out automatically.

If you're not sure what topics to post about, use AnswerThePublic to see what questions people are asking in your niche. Those questions become your posts.

A realistic content week (NGO example)

Now let's do the same thing for a nonprofit running an education access campaign.

Monday: Pre-selling content
Post: "Why kids drop out of school (it's not what you think)"
Format: Carousel showing stats
Goal: Educate the audience on the real problem

Wednesday: Objection handling
Post: "Where does my donation actually go? Here's the breakdown: 70% direct program costs, 20% operations, 10% future campaigns. Every dollar is accounted for."
Format: Simple graphic or video
Goal: Handle the "I don't know if my money is being used well" objection

Friday: Credible content
Post: "Here's how we measure impact. We track attendance rates, test scores, and parent feedback for every student we support. This is what accountability looks like."
Format: Behind-the-scenes post or data visualisation
Goal: Build trust through transparency

Sunday: Impact story
Post: "Meet Sara. Six months ago, she was missing school twice a week because she didn't have supplies. Today, she hasn't missed a day. This is what one donation does."
Format: Image + short story
Goal: Emotional proof

Again, none of these are asking for donations directly. But they're setting up the ask by building trust, handling concerns, and proving impact.

When you finally run a retargeting ad to people who engaged with these posts, your cost per conversion drops because they already trust you. That's the system.

This is precisely the kind of content flow I teach when I'm building an ngo digital strategy with a team. You're not posting randomly. You're posting with intent.

How organic content makes paid ads cheaper

Here's something most people don't realise: organic content directly impacts your paid ad performance.

When someone sees your ad, and they've never heard of you before, they're sceptical. They don't know if you're legit. They don't know if your offer is genuine. They scroll past.

But if they've seen your organic posts, your teaching, your case studies, your transparency, they're warm. The ad doesn't feel like an interruption. It feels like the next step.

That warmth translates to better ad performance. Higher click-through rates. Lower cost per click. Better conversion rates.

I've seen this play out dozens of times. Two identical ads. One running to a cold audience who's never seen the brand. One running to a warm audience who's engaged with organic content in the last 30 days.

The warm audience consistently performs 2-3x better. Sometimes more.

This is why I always tell people: don't just run ads. Build an organic presence first, then amplify it with ads.

Your organic content becomes your retargeting pool. And retargeting is where the magic happens, because you're not starting from zero. You're following up with people who already know you.

If you're not tracking this correctly, you won't see the connection. But if you've set up the tracking setup I trust, you'll be able to compare cold vs warm audience performance and see exactly how much money organic content is saving you on ads.

How to recycle one post into an ad

Let's say you posted something organic that performed well. Good engagement, lots of saves, people DMing you about it.

Don't let that post die. Turn it into an ad.

Here's how I do it:

Step 1: Identify the top-performing organic post from the last 30 days
Check your Meta Business Suite analytics. Look for posts with a high engagement rate and meaningful actions (saves, shares, link clicks, not just likes).

Step 2: Boost it or recreate it as an ad
You can either boost the original post (easy but limited targeting) or create a new ad using the duplicate content (more control).

I usually recreate it to refine the targeting and add a clear CTA.

Step 3: Target a warm audience first
Run the ad to people who've engaged with your page in the last 90 days, or people who've visited your website. These are warm audiences who already know you.

Step 4: Set a conversion goal
Don't just run the ad for "engagement." Set it to optimise for conversions, form submissions, purchases, sign-ups, whatever matters.

This is where where tracking fits into a real funnel becomes critical. You need to know what stage of the funnel this content serves. Is it top-of-funnel awareness? Mid-funnel consideration? Bottom-funnel conversion?

That determines your audience, your budget, and your success metric.

Step 5: Let it run for 7 days, then check the results
Did it drive conversions? Great, scale it. Did it flop? Kill it and try a different post.

This process takes 20 minutes. And it's one of the fastest ways to turn organic content into paid results without starting from scratch.

I do this constantly. A post that worked organically almost always works as an ad, because it's already proven that people care about it.

Tools that make this easier

You don't need a massive content operation. You just need a few simple tools.

For planning: Notion or Trello. I use Notion to map out content themes for the month, then break them into individual posts.

For creation: Canva. Even if you're not a designer, Canva makes it easy to create decent-looking graphics, carousels, and simple videos.

For scheduling: Meta Business Suite if you're only posting to Facebook and Instagram. If you're multi-platform, something like Buffer or Hootsuite works, but honestly, I use Meta's native scheduler because it's free and it works.

For research: AnswerThePublic for content ideas, Google Trends to see what topics are trending in your space.

That's it. You don't need a $500/month tech stack. You need Canva, a planner, and a scheduler.

What to do next

If you're posting content but not getting leads, here's what to change this week:

Stop posting for engagement. Start posting for intent.

Pick one of the three content types I covered, pre-selling, objection-handling, or credibility, and create one post in that category.

Post it. Tag the link properly if it's driving traffic to your site (use UTM tags so you can [INTERNAL LINK: "track which posts actually help" → "Tracking that finally makes your ads and content make sense"]).

Then watch what happens. Not just likes. Look for saves, shares, DMs, link clicks, and form submissions.

If it moves the needle, do more of it; if it doesn't, try a different angle.

And once you've got a few posts that are working organically, turn them into ads. Target warm audiences first. Measure conversions. Scale what works.

That's the system. Simple, repeatable, and way more effective than posting random motivational quotes and hoping for the best.

If you're not sure what your conversion goal should be or how your content fits into a bigger strategy, start with [INTERNAL LINK: "getting clear before you start posting" → "The simple marketing plan that stops you wasting money"]. You need a plan first. Content second.

And if you're running campaigns and you want to know if this content is actually doing anything, check out simple reporting for content performance so you're measuring what matters, not just what looks good in a screenshot.

Content that generates leads isn't flashy. It's focused. It teaches, it handles objections, and it builds trust.

Do that consistently, and the leads show up.