A whole host of B2C companies are generating explosive growth for their brands and businesses by using social media to their advantage. However, the companies that offer business to business products and services, often seem to be lagging behind.
Creating an effective B2B social media marketing campaign could help you to:
- Increase brand awareness
- Drive traffic to your site
- Generate leads and sales
Many companies in the B2B sector rely on traditional techniques such as cold calling and emailing and while these tactics can work, they should be used alongside social media marketing for maximum impact.
Social media is the most effective way to reach new audiences and promote your business to a targeted demographic. These days, 71% of all internet users are on a social media channel. By ignoring it, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to market and promote your B2B company.
This article will outline the most effective ways to create a B2B social media marketing strategy.
1. Pick the right platform
You could spend all day posting great graphics on Instagram, but if your target market is on another platform, your efforts may fall short.
For example, if you’re targeting professional people and graduates, a site such as LinkedIn, which is used by half of all US adults with college degrees, would be more beneficial than Pinterest.
LinkedIn is a great place for B2B companies to focus their marketing campaigns and is the popular choice for businesses online. In fact, more than 95% of B2B businesses use LinkedIn for content marketing according to one CMI report.
In order to figure out which social media channel is best for your business, ask yourself who your target customers are and where they spend their time online. Do the research.
Ask where your competitors are most present and active online? And where do most of the big conversations happen within your industry?
2. Make it exciting
If you’re a B2B company, it might take a little extra effort to make content that is exciting. Industrial plumbers and air conditioning suppliers may feel that they are more boring than fashion brands and health food sellers. But if you think your company is boring, this will come through in the content you produce, and you’ll miss out on attracting a wide audience.
Find a way to cut through the technical wording and discover an angle that resonates with people. Use anecdotes and find news stories that stand out and draw in attention.
Work on your content to make it engaging and visually appealing too. These days, you don’t have to be a graphic designer to create impactful visual content. Have a scroll through the app store or use websites such as Canva to make professional-looking images.
3. Personalize your account
Another issue that B2B companies face on social media, is creating a company tone of voice and portraying a professional image without sounding robotic and automated.
The most effective social media marketing strategies are those that reach people on a personal level. To do this, use informal, chatty and friendly language. Create a personality for your brand.
You could also use first-person voices in emails and messages. Give the company a face and let potential customers know exactly who they are talking to. Use real names and address customers, potential customers and other business owners using first names too.
This level of personalisation could also be done by using a front person or brand ambassador to send tweets, write blog posts and articles and host videos and podcasts. This way, your brand has an unchanging, easily recognisable face.
Using humour is another great way to make your account more personal. Try using copy that is funny and catches the readers attention. Make jokes and puns and have fun with your posting and content creation.
4. Engage with others
Blasting out status updates, posts and images is only going to get you so far. You must actively engage with other social media users if you really want to make a big impact on your social channel of choice.
It’s in the word. Social media is all about being ‘social’. So forge relationships with others in your niche. Comment on your competitor’s posts and follow and engage with their followers too.
Have real conversations and ask questions. Starting a poll on sites like Facebook and Twitter is a great way to encourage followers to engage with you.
Stay up to date with the latest news in your niche and be sure to discuss it. Share relevant news stories and ask the opinions of your followers, weigh in with your own opinions.
5. Hire a social media manager
Social media marketing can often feel overwhelming. It’s a fast-paced industry that is constantly evolving. If you don’t feel as if you can handle all of your social media output yourself, don’t be afraid to outsource the work.
While it might seem tempting to cut costs and run a social media campaign without expert insight, having a social media manager on board could be the difference between a strategy that flops and one that generates explosive growth.
A common mistake made by B2Bs is that they attempt to hire a person that works within their niche, as opposed to someone that is great at creating impactful social media campaigns.
As B2B is viewed as less traditionally exciting B2C. A social media strategy may require some extra effort. For this reason, it is more important to hire a social media expert, than to hire someone that is an expert in your field. You can teach them what they need to know about your industry, let them do the rest.
