Social media marketing is usually not as important for business-to-business (B2B) businesses because most of their customers find them through word-of-mouth or a lot of online searching. Many B2Bs are also in ‘dry’ or serious businesses that don’t work well with pictures. But a social media marketing plan can still help your bottom line in a big way.
When it comes to marketing, B2Bs are basically one group of people trying to sell a product or service to another group of people. Everyone on both sides of the transaction uses social media, even when they are doing a lot of study before making contact.
A strong digital marketing plan should include an effective B2B social media marketing strategy. It helps you with both SEO and content marketing. If you don’t have it, you’ll miss out on a lot of chances to grow.
Does B2B social media marketing work?
Absolutely. The days when B2C companies with loyal, product-loving fans were the only ones who could use social media outlets well are long gone.
Both B2C and B2B buyers spend a lot of time scrolling through their social feeds, both for fun and for work.
Social media platforms like Linkedin and Facebook have built-in tools for B2B marketers that make it easier to get qualified leads and connect with your current customers in new and creative ways.
Also, being involved on social media can help your SEO and increase the number of people who search for what you offer.
B2B companies think that social media marketing has a lot of promise. In fact, more than 70% of B2B marketers say that their sales have gone up since they started using social media.
Whether you have a strong social media team or are a team of one learning strategic tips from pieces like this one, you can help your B2B reach a whole new audience, keep your current customers happy, and build your brand as a thought leader in the industry.
On the other hand, if you don’t have a presence on social media, possible leads might question your legitimacy or think you don’t care about your customers’ interests and opinions.
3 Tips for Making a B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy That Works
1. Write down your B2B goals.
You already know that your B2B needs at least one active social media page, but you need to know what your goals are before you make one.
This will help you figure out which site will work best for you and what kinds of content will help you reach your goals. Social media marketing can be a useful part of your B2B lead generation plan if you do it right.
It’s important to remember that, unlike B2C audiences, who often use social media to boost sales or even make sales directly through social networks, B2B audiences have a longer path to conversion and often a more expensive offering.
The best use of B2B social media is for:
Bringing more attention to a brand
Giving your viewers information (nurturing)
Trying to get leads
You can get ideas from the Mailchimp Instagram page. Instagram is used by the email marketing service platform to show off the personality of its brand and raise brand recognition. You won’t find any pushy sales tactics here.
2. Look at what your rivals are doing on social media
It’s important to keep an eye on competitors before you start any kind of marketing effort. Find out where your competitors are most active on social media. This will help you decide which social media site is best for your business.
Look at what kind of content their audience likes on each site they use, and use that as a model for your own page. Check out any of their social media ads you can find. Your paid and organic campaigns can be compared to those of your rivals. If your audience is similar to theirs, it’s safe to assume that what works for them could also work for you.
You can also find content gaps in your business by looking at what your competitors are doing.
For example, your competitor may post a lot of information about the company and brand, but nothing about the state of the business as a whole. This gives you a chance to own “newsy” content that your readers want to read but can’t find on your competitors’ sites. Since no one else does it, your social media page can become the go-to source.
In the same way, your rivals might not pay attention to a type of content that you know your audience likes, like videos or audio, or they might not pay attention to what customers say. They might even be wasting time on a site that doesn’t fit your audience or goals. You can always learn something from what they do.
3. Put your social media efforts into the right channel
There are a lot of social media platforms where you can find B2B buyers, get people interested in what you have to give, and start a conversation that goes somewhere.
According to a recent study on the social media marketing industry, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are the best social media sites for B2B. But if you only want to use one network, keep in mind that most B2B companies still focus on Linkedin, where they can reach a more professional audience. People use Linkedin to make business choices, not to have fun like they do on other platforms. Your B2B material won’t make their user experience worse, but it will make it better.
Here are some reasons why B2B marketers select Linkedin:
Your content won’t seem like it doesn’t belong. People expect to see material that tells them about news and services in their industries that can help them with their businesses. Your ads will be mixed in with career-focused content and news about your business. On other sites, your ad might be mixed in with different kinds of media.
You can find the right people to talk to. With Linkedin’s powerful filtering tools, you can show your content to the right people with the right job titles. You don’t have to waste time on a general audience that isn’t likely to convert.
You can use UGC that is made for employees. Some of your best salespeople are the people who work for you. They can use video testimonials to show strong social proof and share strategy updates that can help improve the image of your B2B.
Amber Armstrong of Salesforce shares and posts news about the company on her personal Linkedin page on a daily basis. Since most of her Linkedin contacts are probably other C-level employees, it’s possible that they are the ones who make business decisions for their companies. This makes them the perfect audience for Salesforce.
Having YouTube or Instagram as back-up channels is also important if a lot of your material is based on visuals. Twitter is also a great place to share news about your business and answer questions from customers. Some B2Bs make a Twitter account just to help customers with problems or give them support.
Don’t forget to use hashtags in a strategic way to help your organic exposure.
