How B2B Companies Can Start Using Social Media for Marketing

Many B2B CEOs still feel that social media is not their cup of tea, which is normal. Today, companies' attention to social networking is still more focused on how to reach customers. However, if companies make good use of social media for marketing, they will benefit greatly. Not only can it increase user engagement, but it can also effectively influence customers' purchasing decisions before sales staff call customers, provide personalized sales plans and strengthen the company's reputation.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, social media can help B2B brands build brand awareness and showcase their expertise. McKinsey points out that social media is an excellent way for B2B marketers to tap into early competitor developments, customer problems, needs, and beliefs. They can answer questions in a timely manner and influence the emotional interaction between customers and brands.

This is mainly because not all social media revolves around B2C products. Instead, customers and potential customers will talk about business-related companies and topics on social media, and there are enough topics about B2B brands on social media for them to manage and optimize their brands, products and services. The information and comments these people provide about B2B transactions are quite important. A survey showed that 82% of people said that after reading a positive review about a B2B company, they would buy their products or services; only 42% said that they would buy the products of a B2C company in the same situation.

In addition, the number of people who search and share B2B experiences is also growing. In a demand survey report, almost all respondents (97%) said that when making B2B purchase decisions, they would trust content containing user reviews and user-generated content more - this is much higher than the data from B2C user surveys.

Most importantly, B2B companies are proving that social media can generate sales and profits for their brands. For example, Maersk Line, one of the world's largest container shipping companies, has made social media an important part of its marketing mix by operating more than 30 local and international social accounts. The company makes full use of Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram. Interestingly, it actually received a sales lead from a Russian company from one of its blog posts.

Beyond the number of followers (which Maersk certainly has a lot of), Davina Rapaport, the company's LinkedIn press officer and social media manager, is more focused on exploring the impact of social media on customer purchasing decisions. She found that the average Maersk customer reads more than 10 pieces of company-related content on social media before calling the company. Maybe the customer didn't convert until after chatting with a sales representative, but if the content on social media was the main driver of the customer's call, then Maersk can confirm that its social media program is indeed having an impact.

B2B companies need to remember that social experimentation is essential and needs to be done immediately. Here are a few steps I recommend:

1. When launching into the market, align social media marketing with organizational considerations and goals. Because executives are often not convinced of the value of social marketing, go beyond using words like “followers” ​​and “engagement” and show them how social media will help the organization achieve business goals, such as generating sales leads or driving conversions. This is exactly what Rapaport did. “If I were in a meeting and just talked about engagement rates and impressions, they would probably ask me, ‘Great, 100,000 impressions, how much revenue can that bring us?’” To gain trust, Rapaport converted social media data into sales leads, opportunities, and containers sold.

2. Identify your target audience and goals. What do you want your social media project to do for you? Identify the groups you want to reach and the corresponding goals. You need to note that in the B2B world, social media channels, consumption and sharing of content are different from B2C, so don't take it for granted to learn from B2C case studies. To ensure success, B2B marketers must first listen to social voices and optimize monitoring capabilities. Understand what existing and potential customers are saying and what topics are being discussed, and then design strategies to influence brand awareness and identify sales leads.

3. Don't rush to sell. In the B2C field, brands tend to focus social media on stimulating brand awareness, bringing shoppers into retail stores, or strengthening brand reputation. B2B companies are more concerned about sales leads, which can make them too eager for quick success. So B2B companies need to focus on interacting with core users and providing valuable information. When the time is right and the cultivation is in place, sales can be generated.

4. Determine the analysis methods and the best tracking solutions. B2B marketers cannot just set specific performance or apply some tracking tools like B2C brands, but also need to find the most appropriate measurement standards for specific categories. When setting standards, remember that using social content to influence a B2B transaction is far more valuable than a B2C transaction, because just one transaction may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. As Rapaport pointed out, it is not about interaction and sharing, but the delivery of high-quality leads, sales conversation rate, and profit. The job of B2B marketers is to confirm the contribution of social media to these key indicators.

via:yeeyan