When properly implemented, social media can help B2B companies develop early-stage prospect relationships, nurture leads, speed up the sales cycle and deepen customer relationships.
Social media is here to stay. And not just for business to consumer sales -- social media is playing a larger role in the B2B decision-making process for high-cost, long sales cycle purchases that involve many stakeholders.
In the recent past, marketing focused on building awareness using advertising, direct mail, trade shows, PR, print media and cold calls. To get a company's product information, prospects had to engage directly with a sales person.
Now, due to the Internet and online reviews, blogs and social media, prospects can thoroughly research a company, its products, prices and reputation without making first contact with that company. According to Forrester Research, 77% of B2B decision-makers are active in social media.
Paul Gillin, in "Secrets of Social Media Marketing" describes the tectonic shift in marketing:
"Social media challenges nearly every assumption about how businesses should communicate with their constituencies. The most important change to understand and to accept is that those constituencies now have the capacity to talk - to each other and to the businesses they patronize. In the past, those conversations have been limited to groups of at most a few people. Today, they are global and may include millions of voices. Once a shift like this occurs, a log of change happens, both predictable and unforeseen."
A word of caution, however - before leaping into social media, B2B companies need to determine how social media fits in with their business objectives. Then, social media needs to be treated as a critical and accountable part of their marketing and sales strategies.
An eBook by Marketo warns against making these common social media mistakes:
- Don't dive into social media unless you're ready. You need objectives, goals and ways to measure success and accountability.
- Don't be a big brag. Know the difference between becoming a thought leader and endless self-promotion.
- Don't be afraid to try social media because it doesn't rely on the traditional metrics you're used to. ROI will be challenging with social media, but there are ways to measure impact if you have a baseline to start with.
- Don't use social media sites as advertising opportunities. Keep your brand human on social media sites and save your ad-speak for real advertising.
- Don't assume every social media site is good for your business. Research which social sites your customers frequent and how the prefer to consumer content.
Click here to download "The Definitive Guide to B2B Social Media"
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B2B companies that take the right steps in adopting social media can thrive and profit from the new realities of business in the era of customer connectedness and empowerment.
Social media is not just a technology that can be bolted on to the traditional way of doing things: it's an entirely new way of relating and doing business. Many B2B companies have begun to realize that adopting social media requires organizational changes.
But, change is hard. It is not easy to adapt to the power that is shifting to the customer as a result of social media. And if your company is experiencing difficulty in making the transition to social media, you're not alone.
The biggest hurdle to jumping into social media is not knowing how to get started.
Radian6 has developed an excellent eBook which outlines the 4 steps necessary for organizations to successfully adopt social media:
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Make a Case for Social Media - To make the case for social media, demonstrate how your company is very likely missing out on important ongoing social media conversations. Are there any discussions going on about your company right now that can be monitored with social media? Similarly, social media can be used to monitor what's being said about your industry, and perhaps most importantly, your competition.
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Overcome Cultural/Company Obstacles - This is probably the toughest step. There are normally several obstacles to overcome such as: the notion that social media is a passing fad (the numbers speak for themselves), social media is only for consumer products (social media actually works better for expensive, complex products with long sales cycles and multiple points of contacts - sound like a B2B sale?), social media can't be controlled (you can't prevent anyone from talking about your company), fear of a social media crisis (your absence is likely to make a crisis worse), it's a waste of time (if you distrust your employees this much, you have bigger issues than social media adoption), fear of legal complications (set up clear guidelines), and effect on the bottom line (demonstrate the ROI).
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Set Up a Social Media Council - A social media council can help you turn the legal department into an ally, get buy-in from HR, identify and share best practices, overcome internal objections (see #2 above), eliminate duplication of effort and speak with a unified voice.
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Get Started - This includes setting clear goals and objectives, building a social media team, developing a social media policy and plan and training the company.
Click here to download a copy of the 18-page eBook "Social Media Blueprint: A Step-by-Step Plan to Prepare Your Company."
What social media obstacles are you encountering?
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B2B marketers who are able to demystify social media can get invaluable customer feedback, build stronger relationships, increase awareness and develop new business opportunities.
An enigma is a puzzle or something mysterious and hard to explain. That's why the German cryptology device used by the Nazis in World War II to encode secret messages was called the Enigma machine. (Fortunately, the Allies were able to break the code, obtain invaluable enemy intelligence and possibly shorten the European war by two years.)
To many B2B companies, social media remains an enigma. They know what social media is. The problem is that most don't know how social media interacts with current and potential customers, and how it can drive awareness, sales, profitability and loyalty.
The reason for this is twofold: 1) social media seems nebulous, and 2) there's no single measure of social media's financial impact.
But like the Allies, B2B companies can crack the code of social media.
In a McKinsey Quarterly article, 4 steps are offered to frame social media as it relates to a the "consumer decision journey." Framing social media through this paradigm has helped companies tie their social media activities to profitability. Additionally, this approach has helped companies improve their marketing and operations to leverage the benefits of social media.
- Monitor - To borrow a military acronym, social media is like an LP/OP (listening post/observation post). Even without engaging customers directly, social media should be continuously monitored to glean insights and to warn of potentially negative publicity. It is also important to communicate the information quickly to the right channels within the company.
- Respond - Responding to social media is just as important to monitoring it. Responding to social media can provide customer service, uncover business opportunities, and respond to crises. The ability to respond quickly is only going to become more important. Doing so rapidly, transparently and honestly dramatically affect customer attitudes, preference and loyalty.
- Amplify - This involves designing your marketing activities to prompt people to engage with you and share with others. For instance, sharing content or videos which prompt your "community" to interact with you and others. Your followers can then wear their association with you like a badge and become your brand advocates.
- Lead - Social media can and should be used proactively. Social media can raise awareness prior to a purchase, to introduce new products or make announcements, and to get product development insights from customers in a relatively inexpensive way.
Click here to read the full article, "Demystifying Social Media."
B2B marketers who properly measure their social media marketing efforts are able to make improvements faster, gain greater customer engagement and increase profitability.
A study by Bain & Company, "Putting Social Media to Work," confirmed that many companies remain on the sidelines of adopting social media. Additionally, the study documented that "the gulf between the early adopters and those waiting to take the plunge has actually widened."
However, the study also noted that companies that have moved aggressively into social media have captured significant economic value from their investments:
"We found that customers who engage with companies over social media spend 20 percent to 40 percent more money with those companies than other customers. They also demonstrate a deeper emotional commitment to the companies, granting them an average 33 points higher Net Promoter Score, a common measure of customer loyalty."
For many companies, one of the biggest barriers to social media adoption is determining its ROI. Finding the right metrics to determine success can be intimidating for many companies.
In a Radian6 eBook, measuring social media can be broken down into 5 steps:
Step 1: Align your Objectives with your Metrics - The more specific the better. A classic methodology for developing objectives introduced by management guru Peter Drucker is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed.
Step 2: Measure Awareness, Attention and Reach - The best way to measure the effectiveness of a company's social media relationships is via awareness, attention and reach.
Start with fans, followers, subscribers and potential reach.
Then measure your share of the conversation.
Step 3: Measure Conversions and Sales - The number of eyeballs measured in social media is actually not that important. What's more important are the actions people take such as clicking a link, filling out a form or making a purchase.
To determine the value of a Facebook like, use this equation.
For direct response sales, the key is to provide a unique way for people to buy from you that is exclusive to your social media channels. This is the one place you can calculate true ROI.
Step 4: Track and Measure Social Media Leads - Regardless of how you track your prospects (CRM, spreadsheet, etc) make sure to designate a lead source. Then analyze which leads came from social media, what percentage they are of the overall sales pipeline, how quickly they move through the sales funnel compared to other leads, etc.
Step 5: Measure Cost Savings - A penny saved is a penny earned. Social media is offering efficiencies to companies, most notably in the customer service side, but also in areas like communications and training.
Click here to download a PDF version of "5 Steps to Effective Social Media Measurement."
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B2B companies who focus on their impact on customer success can significantly improve their profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.
When asked to describe what they do, most B2B companies will tell you that they provide a product or service at the lowest possible price.
But companies that focus exclusively on product and price are doing the bare minimum to survive.
B2B firms that want to move beyond the price wars of providing a commodity at the lowest price need to rethink their mission and strategy. Specifically, companies need to focus on how they can help their customers thrive.
Following just two metrics can help B2B companies move beyond competing on price:
- Customer Engagement
- Customer Impact
In a Gallup study of B2B companies, those two metrics were analyzed. The study showed that companies with higher level of customer engagement enjoyed at "23% premium over average customers in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue and relationship growth."
Gallup defines customer engagement as:
...an emotional connection based on Confidence, Integrity, Pride, and Passion.
According to the study, while the idea of customer engagement seems obvious, very few companies are measuring it. Additionally, the Gallup study found that only 13% of customers are fully engaged.
Gallup defines customer impact as:
...providing a meaningful change in a customer's business (or business processes) that significantly improves the customer's bottom line. It means helping a customer be more successful by doing business with your company than it could be by doing business with any other organization.
Companies that focus on customer engagement and impact can move from "price" to "advice."
In order to measure their impact on customers, companies must:
- Know the customer's business
- Bring the customer new ideas
- Make the ideas work for the customer by tailoring them to their business situation
For B2B firms to implement this approach the following steps are necessary:
Click here to read "Creating Impact in B2B Relationships."
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B2B companies who blog are able to increase awareness, credibility, search engine rankings and leads - all while linking marketing efforts back to business goals.
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) describes blogs this way:
What is a ‘Blog’? Shorthand for “Weblog,” a blog offers an easy way to present brief chunks of frequently refreshed Web content. Backed with easy-to-use technologies for syndication (e.g., RSS), comments and trackbacks, blogs are often the blazing centers of social media solar systems that can incorporate sophisticated SEO strategies and community-building campaigns.
Company use of blogs is on the rise. According to CMI, blogging is the 3rd most common content marketing activity, surpassed only by social media and articles.
In terms of blogging by company size, 68% of companies with 10-99 employees maintain a blog, while only 55% of the largest companies employ this tactic.
In an eBook on blogging by CMI, the benefits of blogging are outlined. Here's my summary of the 12 reasons a blog is the #1 marketing tactic for B2B marketers:
- Blogs are inexpensive, easy to use and can be updated quickly.
- YOU own the blog, as opposed to other third-party and social media outposts like Facebook. And the blog can be integrated into your website, or even serve in lieu of a website.
- Blogs provide a branded context for your content. You can extend your brand without paying for third-party media.
- Blogs convey a personality with a unique voice and the opportunity to write in a conversational tone that makes your company appear “human”.
- Blogs improve search engine rankings via keyword-rich content, fresh content and additional indexed pages.
- Blogs are a 24/7 communication platform where you can quickly publish favorable content about your company or respond to evolving issues.
- Blogs support an array of media formats and simplify the uploading and management of text, photographs, graphics, videos, audio, presentations and PDFs.
- Blogs facilitate content distribution through multiple channels such as social media, RSS feeds and email newsletters.
- Blogs supply content for social media campaigns. Content is the fire, social media is the gasoline.
- Blogs provide a targeted location to direct prospects, customers and the public via a URL or QR code with specific information.
- Blogs are flexible and can help companies achieve a variety of corporate goals, such as providing product-related content, answering customer questions, attracting new prospects and hosting an executive platform.
- Blogs provide metrics that you can use to track marketing back to business goals.
Click here to download a copy of CMI's "Ultimate Guide to Blogging."
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B2B CEOs who are active on social media can raise and shape their company's profile, motivate employees, recruit top talent and build greater trust.
In a study by BRANDfog, a conundrum is presented:
"The most effective leaders throughout history have been great communicators, yet the vast majority of modern day CEOs and C-Suite executives are conspicuously absent from social media channels."
This raises the question about why C-Suite executives are ignoring social media engagement when it is such a critical component of digital marketing.
One of the biggest, most obvious barriers to CEO engagement in social media is the time and effort required. Plus, social media makes the lawyers nervous. However, according to the study, investing time and effort to connect with customers, employees, and stakeholders in a transparent, relevant and timely fashion can mold perceptions of a company in very powerful ways.
The benefits of a social media-engaged CEO is the ability to interact directly with inevitable complaints, negative comments and challenges that are thrown at a company. Social media enables a company to address and reverse liabilities before they can infect a company's reputation.
What's more, when the C-Suite is engaged on social media, the company is able to shape and direct conversations related to their company in a positive way:
93% of respondents believe that CEO engagement in social media helps communicate company values, shape a company’s reputation, and grow and evolve corporate leadership in times of crisis.
82% of respondents were more likely or much more likely to trust a company whose CEO and leadership team engage with social media.
78% of respondents would prefer to work for a company whose leadership is active on social media.
Internally, CEOs who are engaged on social media are able to break down counterproductive silos and facilitate greater communication and collaboration with the company.
But the biggest benefit to senior executives is being able to hear unvarnished, unfiltered voices who want to connect with them. This provides an invaluable way to take an internal and external pulse and be able to stand behind touch decisions, set new priorities and reshape their company's culture.
"...in order to effectively lead a company, management competencies will have to be reinvented around a new set of principles including transparency, integrity, collaboration, and consistent communication with stakeholders about company vision, mission, and values through social media channels."
Click here to download a copy of BRANDfog's CEO, Social Media & Leadership Survey.
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B2B companies that make the strategic, organizational, and operational changes to leverage digital marketing can become more agile, more productive, and accelerate revenue growth.
B2B companies, like many firms adapting to how the Internet has changed the way products are researched and purchased, have experimented with cracking the code that generates sales. Most have failed.
Previously, the sales funnel or purchase cycle was fairly linear. A prospect had limited sources of information to research a product or service. To get more information, by necessity, the buyer would have to contact the seller early in the purchase cycle. Thereafter, the seller was able to exert some control over the purchase.
Now, buyers are influenced by a non-linear variety of information sources outside the seller's control: search, social referrals and recommendations, online reviews, etc.
B2B companies that understand this evolution are beginning to move digital interactivity toward the center of their marketing strategies.
Digital is now the primary driver of revenue in almost all business categories, and will only become more so as buyers increase their digital "purchasing behavior."
McKinsey & Company published an assessment of business digital marketing, noting as their primary finding that
"...the most successful digital marketers focus on managing four core sources of value as they increase the percentage of marketing and channel spending directed to digital activities."
Here's my summary of the four ways B2B Marketers can increase the value of their digital marketing:
- Orchestrate an integrated consumer experience - communicating externally with a unified voice can be difficult for some organizations. But the more that a company can speak with consistency through all channels at all times, the more they are able to instill confidence in their prospects, increase preference and speed up the purchase cycle.
- Inspire customers to help you stretch your marketing budget - rather than "telling and selling," effective digital marketers are spending less on traditional outbound marketing. Instead, they are offering up useful content and making it easy for their prospects to find and share it through social media.
- Adopt a publisher’s discipline to curb costs - many companies don't have a unified approach to all the content they create. While this denigrates their customer experience (see #1 above), it can also be a costly oversight. By streamlining, aggregating, integrating and re-purposing their content like a publisher, companies are enjoying tremendous cost savings.
- Use intelligence wisely to drive performance - successful companies are able to turn oceans of digital data from insights to action. By getting insights into digital metrics, greater clarity is brought to how marketing can directly improve performance.
Click here to read McKinsey's "Four Ways to Get More Value from Digital Marketing."
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By using social media, B2B marketers can increase awareness, build industry contacts and gain valuable feedback and insights about their products and those of their competitors.
J.J. McCorvey, a reporter at Inc. magazine, outlines the best practices for successful use of social media in a recent article. Here's my summary of the best 5 tips as they relate to B2B Marketing.
1. Define Your Target Audience – be mindful that social media is about building relationships, not broadcasting. Are you trying to reach the head of another company, the end users of your product, decision makers within a division, procurement people? Advanced search features in LinkedIn can help you zero in on the right targets.
2. Listen Before Communicating – Resist the urge to announce features and benefits about your products and services. In social media, this behavior is disdained. Instead, listen. Imagine that you’ve joined an ongoing conversation between others. Once you follow the thread of the conversation, add to it with useful insights and information that will draw favorable attention to you and your company.
3. Communicating – When communicating in social media, you want to provide resources and knowledge. According to David Armano, senior vice president of digital marketing firm Edelman Digital, "The key is to provide value through thought leadership." Some of the ways this can be done is by posting reports and presentations and initiating interaction on LinkedIn. Providing answers to peers and prospects is the most effective social media marketing tactic.
4. Be Cautious – Social media should not be considered a direct sales tool for B2B companies, but rather as a source of leads and introductions to relationships. Also, be careful about soliciting social media users when responding to posts or you may be viewed a spammer.
5. Measure Your Efforts – What can be measured can be improved. It’s important to have analytics in place to help plan and measure the quantity and quality of your efforts.
Click on the following link to read the full article, How to Use Social Media for B2B Marketing.
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For most B2B marketers, trade shows are enormously important for generating leads, and closing sales.
However, with additional planning, trade shows can generate press coverage for your company to increase booth traffic, brand awareness, leads and website visits.
In an Exhibitor Magazine article, several PR pros outline how to increase your company’s chances of press coverage both during, and long after the show.
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Find your audience – ask the show organizer for a list of preregistered press attendees and then analyze the list to determine what beats they cover. Otherwise, start with online research to see which news organizations covered the show in the past. PR news directories are also a good source for building media lists.
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Craft your message – The press message needs to be concise and of interest to their readership. This may be a slightly different message from what your sales people will be delivering to their prospects.
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Notify the masses – In addition to personalized e-mails and press kits, also take advantage of paid newswire services, as well as social media.
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Book interviews – Don’t expect the media to contact you or stop by your booth because you invited them. Contact them and offer to meet for coffee or lunch, but offer a compelling reason for them to meet with you. Make sure you have the right executive from your firm ready to meet with the press.
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Assemble your kit – Mail the kits out before the show. At the show, put the materials on a company-branded USB drive and leave them at the press room, but also be prepared to distribute them if the press stops by your booth.
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Set goals – Your CEO will have established trade show sales, so make sure to manage expectations with measurable media-related goals.
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Get involved – If the show has conference or educational components, try to get your company to offer content or to be on a panel discussion, and invite the press. Similarly, enter your company in relevant show award competitions, and if you win, issue a release.
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Train your staff – Be mindful that booths are often staffed by salespeople more interested in prospects than the press. If you are not able to train the booth staff in press relations, have them direct the press to your company’s designated press liaison.
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Prepare your exhibit – The press might visit at your booth, so make sure there’s a quite, comfortable place to talk, refreshments, and product samples.
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Continue the conversation – Think of the trade show press contact as the beginning, not the end of the conversation and your company’s relationship with the press. Follow up on every journalistic contact made at the show.
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Measure the results – Track media impressions, including original articles and reposts. Check web analytics to see how press coverage affected website traffic. Issue a report to management, including a qualitative overview of the show’s media activity.
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Conduct a postmortem - Gather everyone together who worked at the booth or helped with media activity, find out what worked and didn’t work, and incorporate that feedback into future trade show media planning.
Click on the following link to read the full article, Media Relations: 12 Steps to Press Success, written by Exhibitor Magazine's managing editor, Lena Valenty.
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