Companies and marketers alike have tended to be skeptical about B2B marketing on social. There is typically uncertainty about the ability to target the right industry, and company etc. - but that is 2015 thinking! With the right strategy and research, it is very possible to make a powerful integrated campaign and ensure you are hitting the resources and leads you want to using digital marketing and social media. At Flywheel, we are currently building several B2B campaigns - both for clients and for our own efforts. Here we’ll lay out the social and digital components we have been using…
Social Drivers
Begin by looking at what social platforms you should use to push leads to your site. This will be dependant on where your prospective leads are active. As an example, we are currently running a program for a specialized product company looking to target rental and construction companies. Social platforms LinkedIn and Twitter allow us to provide a push to these companies, in different ways.
On LinkedIn, sponsored content will appear on the feeds of specific individuals that we want to know about the product. LinkedIn does an awesome job of allowing you to get granular with your targeting options, meaning you can get your content in front of the right people by entering the names of specific companies plus the title of the person at that company you wish to drive to your site. We are running a general campaign to a) the rental industry and b) to the decision makers we believe are best suited to be aware of the promoted product. Complementing this, we are running a sister campaign directed at the specific companies we have identified as high value, with the right position title. This two-pronged approach ensures we capture the specific leads identified by research, alongside a wider net of companies we may have missed.
For Twitter the approach is different. We are using this platform to push out the product awareness message in shorter bursts, directly targeting companies identified as high-value by prior research. Targeted accounts will get a tweet highlighting the benefits of switching to our product, e.g. cost savings and a link to the site page that provides them with more information. Twitter allows us to really target our message and our audience. Some may say this could be interpreted as intrusive or that these messages are ignored, but the result from these campaigns would cause me to disagree. Companies benefit from the superior product; and were handed the information about it on a platter.
Site Journey
As with any campaign, targeted leads should click into your site and land on a product specific page related to the social channel and your content. But we would say to take this one step further and provide some content personalization to your page. Consider building a unique landing page with benefits, blog or tips that are all related to the lead. Custom pages can also be tailored to increase the chances of creating your desired outcome and optimize the opportunity for a conversion. Examples include building industry-specific content sections on your pages to provide tailored benefits and the addition of pop-ups for lead collection. If you are spending the money on the ad to get visitors to your site, ensure your success with site personalization.
Re-marketing
But, say the lead browsed your site and products but did not convert (i.e. didn’t buy or provide their contact information). Let’s not let them get away that easily! Build a re-marketing campaign to re-capture this audience with a very targeted ad. Making sure the content is strong, punchy and reminds them of your top benefit will drive them back to your site. Ensure you are creating ads that are optimized for both desktop and for mobile, and drive traffic directly to a lead collection form. This will increase your chances of getting an immediate conversion. Remember, they have been to the site, read the content, clicked around; now it is time to pony up the contact deets. That said, make sure you monitor the analytics and bounce rate. If it’s high and leads don’t leave contact details but do click other pages, analyze these behaviours and allow them to influence tweaks to the campaign.
ROI
So back to the original point, conversions. With a campaign that has been built to monitor multiple site entry points, you can easily determine the components of the campaign that are providing value – or that are not. At Flywheel we have a scoring system for certain leads related to specific action on the site. Campaigns and actions that score higher can show us what campaigns we should replicate, and inform what we should change.
Where is Facebook?
If you have budget to include brand awareness or increasing brand reach then I would add Facebook to your tactics and activities. And yes, while the targeting for Facebook can be very specific I just don’t see that platform as a place for a B2B lead capture. Some numbers might contradict that thinking but if I am working to conserve your budget or make sure the $4 click is a potential warm lead, I stick to Twitter and LinkedIn.
As you can see, B2B on social can be successful provided you do your research, integrate your campaign tactics, and evaluate success.
Download our guide to creating a successful social media strategy here.
Author: Shane Davis
Digital