Where's the Beef? How social media really can cut the mustard in B2B marketing
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The document discusses how social media can benefit B2B brands if used strategically. It recommends starting by listening to understand target audiences and their online behaviors. This insight can help integrate social media into marketing strategies in two ways - raising brand awareness through relevant content sharing, and driving traffic to events through "pull" marketing. Objectives for social media should align with overall goals but consider social's capabilities, like measuring engagement over direct leads. Defining objectives also helps decide appropriate platforms, tactics, and tools for measurement.
![Can social media marketing
really deliver benefits for
B2B brands?
While social media has traditionally been viewed as The CRM product marketing team at
more valuable for consumer brands, there is plenty of Oracle receive 6,000+ page views per month on
evidence that it can be beneficial for B2B businesses the team blog, and have a Twitter following
as well. of over 4,000. 3
Here are just a few examples of what B2B brands , a UK vendor of online accounting
large and small have achieved with social media. software, generated product enquiries and
booked sales meetings as a direct result
Networking vendor Cisco saved more than
of promoting its presence at an industry
$100,000 by launching a new product through
event via Twitter. 4
social media only – and attracted 90 times more
attendees than real-world launches. 1
Industry analyst firm Forrester Research has
built up a vibrant community of nearly 5,000
fans on Facebook and has a Twitter following
of over 57,000. 2
1
Source: Social Media Examiner: How Social Media Helped Cisco Shave $100,00+ Off a Product Launch
[http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cisco-social-media-product-launch/]
2
Source: Marketo, 5 B2B Social Media Success Stories [http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2010/05/b2b-social-media-success.html]
3
Source: Oracle, Inside Social Marketing Blog [http://blogs.oracle.com/socialmarketing/]
4
Source: Aqilla [http://www.aqilla.com]
3 | Marketing Options International](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/wheresthebeef-110315055939-phpapp01/85/Where-s-the-Beef-How-social-media-really-can-cut-the-mustard-in-B2B-marketing-3-320.jpg)
![How much budget, time
and resource should
“
I dedicate to social media?
While this is very much a ‘how long is a piece of
string?’ question, there is no doubt that B2B brands
are dedicating a growing proportion of their budget to
social media marketing. A survey by the IT Services
Marketing Association, for example, found that
members had increased the social media portion of
their budget from an average of 12% in FY2009 to
15% in FY2010. 5
Part of the reason is that B2B marketers are realising
their marketing spend goes further in the social space.
When your customers and advocates start doing
your work for you by sharing your content and talking
positively about your brand in public, you are literally
“
When your customers and
for you by sharing your content
your brand in public, you are
literally ‘doing more with less’.
‘doing more with less’.
Social media is an integral and increasingly important
part of marketing strategy. We are already seeing
dedicated headcount being allocated to social
media within major corporates, usually in Marketing
or Corporate Communications. This trend is likely
to continue and grow. And where headcount is
not available, most reputable integrated marketing
agencies can provide strategic advice on incorporating
social media into your marketing mix, as well as
tactical support with campaign development,
execution, monitoring and reporting.
5
ITSMA, Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2010 Budget Allocations and Trends
[http://www.itsma.com/research/2010-budget-allocations-and-trends/]
8 | Marketing Options International](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/wheresthebeef-110315055939-phpapp01/85/Where-s-the-Beef-How-social-media-really-can-cut-the-mustard-in-B2B-marketing-8-320.jpg)
![How can I measure and
demonstrate the success of
my social media campaigns?
There are many proven social media monitoring
techniques, from simple mention tracking to
sophisticated sentiment analysis, to measure the
“
While monitoring social media mentions alone
will not give an idea of sentiment, it can indicate
“
success of your social media marketing efforts. These how aware your market is of your brand in relation
techniques can be combined with your existing digital to the competition. Results can be correlated
campaign analytics to provide insight into how your against recent brand awareness campaigns to
social media efforts are influencing and augmenting determine their effectiveness.
your overall marketing activity.
Typical objectives could include:
This is the one your senior team will want to As social media marketing
see. As social media marketing tends not to be
a lead-generating activity, financial ROI can be tends not to be a
hard to measure. It’s not impossible, however.
Olivier Blanchard, author of Social Media ROI, has
developed a methodology 6
for measuring the impact of your social marketing
initiatives on your bottom line, which is well measure. It’s not impossible,
worth exploring. Increasingly, companies are
investigating ways of incorporating SM metrics
data into marketing automation solutions such
as Eloqua, Marketo or Coremetrics and we see
this becoming an ever more prominent topic
throughout 2011.
6
Olivier Blanchard: The Basics of Social Media ROI [http://www.slideshare.net/thebrandbuilder/olivier-blanchard-basics-of-social-media-roi]
9 | Marketing Options International](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/wheresthebeef-110315055939-phpapp01/85/Where-s-the-Beef-How-social-media-really-can-cut-the-mustard-in-B2B-marketing-9-320.jpg)
Where's the Beef? How social media really can cut the mustard in B2B marketing
- 1. Where’s the beef? How social media really can cut the mustard in B2B marketing
- 2. Essential answers to 7 ‘must know’ questions asked by B2B marketers today. Most B2B marketers know by now that social media It will provide practical guidance on incorporating can add value to their marketing strategy. Yet many social media into your overall marketing strategy. You are still unsure of where to start, which platforms to will learn about some common tactics and techniques use or how to measure and demonstrate the success for successful social media marketing, and some of their social media marketing initiatives. proven methods of monitoring progress, measuring results and demonstrating ROI. This white paper from Marketing Options International will answer seven burning questions being asked by B2B marketers in 2011: 1. Can social media marketing really deliver benefits for B2B brands? 2. Where should I start? 3. How do I integrate social media into my overall marketing strategy? 4. What sort of objectives should I set? 5. How do I incorporate social media in my marketing mix? 6. How much budget, time and resource should I dedicate to social media? 7. How can I measure and demonstrate the success of my social media campaigns? 2 | Marketing Options International
- 3. Can social media marketing really deliver benefits for B2B brands? While social media has traditionally been viewed as The CRM product marketing team at more valuable for consumer brands, there is plenty of Oracle receive 6,000+ page views per month on evidence that it can be beneficial for B2B businesses the team blog, and have a Twitter following as well. of over 4,000. 3 Here are just a few examples of what B2B brands , a UK vendor of online accounting large and small have achieved with social media. software, generated product enquiries and booked sales meetings as a direct result Networking vendor Cisco saved more than of promoting its presence at an industry $100,000 by launching a new product through event via Twitter. 4 social media only – and attracted 90 times more attendees than real-world launches. 1 Industry analyst firm Forrester Research has built up a vibrant community of nearly 5,000 fans on Facebook and has a Twitter following of over 57,000. 2 1 Source: Social Media Examiner: How Social Media Helped Cisco Shave $100,00+ Off a Product Launch [http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cisco-social-media-product-launch/] 2 Source: Marketo, 5 B2B Social Media Success Stories [http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2010/05/b2b-social-media-success.html] 3 Source: Oracle, Inside Social Marketing Blog [http://blogs.oracle.com/socialmarketing/] 4 Source: Aqilla [http://www.aqilla.com] 3 | Marketing Options International
- 4. Where should I start? Always start by listening. Monitoring social networks Once you have this knowledge you can decide how will help you to understand where your target you are going to integrate social media into your existing audience gather online, what they’re talking about marketing mix. You can also set some relevant objectives and the dynamics and etiquette of the platforms they specifically for social media, in order to measure how well use. All this will provide insight into what you need to it is working for you, and refine your activities based on do in order to meet your target audience’s information that information. needs and make them more aware of your brand. There are many social media monitoring tools available to provide this insight. If you do not have the time or resource for monitoring in-house, this should be a service your agency can readily provide. “ “ Always start by listening. Monitoring social networks will help you to understand where your target audience gather online, what they’re talking about and the dynamics and etiquette of the platforms they use. 4 | Marketing Options International
- 5. How do I integrate social media into my marketing strategy? “ Marketing strategy falls broadly into two camps: When you integrate your traditional ‘push’ marketing brand awareness and demand creation. Social media activities with the ‘pull’ marketing potential of social marketing has an important part to play in both. Brand awareness: Social media is an ideal environment for raising awareness. Your research will have led you to the online places where your customers gather, and provided insight into what those customers need. If the information and advice that you give to those customers is appreciated, they will start to do your work for you – by sharing your content and talking positively about your brand. Demand creation: Where content is orientated towards demand creation, integrate social media elements with the expectation that they will support the achievement of goals, rather than directly supply leads. Social networks are an immense potential traffic driver to your conference, webcast or white paper. However, this has to be done in a ‘pull’ marketing style that requires you to be in the right places and “ media, you create a platform for thought-leadership and influence that elevates the credibility of all your propositions. Social networks are an immense conference, webcast or white done in a ‘pull’ marketing style that requires you to be in the right places and responding in the responding in the right way – to lead people in the right way – to lead people in the direction you want. direction you want. 5 | Marketing Options International
- 6. What sort of objectives should I set? Traditional campaign measures, like cost-per-lead, Relevant and interesting don’t always work for social media, which tends content will continue to be circulated on social to support lead generation rather than actively media platforms long after it has been created. delivering leads. You can use social media to extend the longevity and reach of your campaigns, increasing the For social media, you should set objectives that returns on your initial investment. align with overall marketing goals but which take into account the specific capabilities and limitations of social media as a marketing channel. “ Defining your social media objectives will help you to decide which platforms and tactics to use in order to “ achieve them. It will also indicate what you need to Typical objectives could include: measure, so you can ensure you – or your agency – have the appropriate monitoring and measurement consideration: Measurement can be taken tools in place. directly or triangulated from metrics such as automated sentiment analysis and Net Promoter Scores. This can be measured in numerous ways, such as an increase in social media mentions or reach, comparison with competitor social media activity, or an improvement in share of voice relative to a known starting position. which platforms and tactics to use Retweets, link-sharing and volumes of blog posts and comments all measure levels of engagement on social networks. This indicates increased market awareness from advocacy; which is very difficult to measure with traditional media. 6 | Marketing Options International
- 7. How do I incorporate social media in my marketing mix? Successfully implementing social media into marketing Monitoring and responding: On social media campaigns means delivering the right content on the platforms, the effects of any marketing activity right social media platform, monitoring the results and can be measured in real-time. Monitoring tools responding accordingly. and techniques deliver near-instantaneous insight, enabling you to respond with topical content Social media selection: Social media platforms can “ “ whenever the conversation pulls you for it. be ideal distribution mechanisms for the content that The combination of timing and relevance increases supports your lead-generation activities. The media the value of your content, so it is more likely to you select will be dictated by two things: the location be shared. of your audience and the type of content you plan to create. There is no point posting a video to Facebook if your customers don’t use it, but uploading it to YouTube and linking to it from Twitter or LinkedIn may result in high levels of viewing and sharing by your There is no point posting a target audience. Content type: When creating content for use on social platforms, the basic principles of good business customers don’t use it, but communication apply: know your audience, tailor the message to the medium and be clear what you want uploading it to YouTube and people to do. Monitoring will help you to understand what your audience is interested in. Your job then is linking to it from Twitter or to create content that provides the information they need, is in a format that they will appreciate, and LinkedIn may result in high positions your organisation as an expert in the field. Depending on the social media objectives you have set, the calls to action may be to visit your blog or by your target audience. website for more information, register for an event or webcast, or share your content with others. 7 | Marketing Options International
- 8. How much budget, time and resource should “ I dedicate to social media? While this is very much a ‘how long is a piece of string?’ question, there is no doubt that B2B brands are dedicating a growing proportion of their budget to social media marketing. A survey by the IT Services Marketing Association, for example, found that members had increased the social media portion of their budget from an average of 12% in FY2009 to 15% in FY2010. 5 Part of the reason is that B2B marketers are realising their marketing spend goes further in the social space. When your customers and advocates start doing your work for you by sharing your content and talking positively about your brand in public, you are literally “ When your customers and for you by sharing your content your brand in public, you are literally ‘doing more with less’. ‘doing more with less’. Social media is an integral and increasingly important part of marketing strategy. We are already seeing dedicated headcount being allocated to social media within major corporates, usually in Marketing or Corporate Communications. This trend is likely to continue and grow. And where headcount is not available, most reputable integrated marketing agencies can provide strategic advice on incorporating social media into your marketing mix, as well as tactical support with campaign development, execution, monitoring and reporting. 5 ITSMA, Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2010 Budget Allocations and Trends [http://www.itsma.com/research/2010-budget-allocations-and-trends/] 8 | Marketing Options International
- 9. How can I measure and demonstrate the success of my social media campaigns? There are many proven social media monitoring techniques, from simple mention tracking to sophisticated sentiment analysis, to measure the “ While monitoring social media mentions alone will not give an idea of sentiment, it can indicate “ success of your social media marketing efforts. These how aware your market is of your brand in relation techniques can be combined with your existing digital to the competition. Results can be correlated campaign analytics to provide insight into how your against recent brand awareness campaigns to social media efforts are influencing and augmenting determine their effectiveness. your overall marketing activity. Typical objectives could include: This is the one your senior team will want to As social media marketing see. As social media marketing tends not to be a lead-generating activity, financial ROI can be tends not to be a hard to measure. It’s not impossible, however. Olivier Blanchard, author of Social Media ROI, has developed a methodology 6 for measuring the impact of your social marketing initiatives on your bottom line, which is well measure. It’s not impossible, worth exploring. Increasingly, companies are investigating ways of incorporating SM metrics data into marketing automation solutions such as Eloqua, Marketo or Coremetrics and we see this becoming an ever more prominent topic throughout 2011. 6 Olivier Blanchard: The Basics of Social Media ROI [http://www.slideshare.net/thebrandbuilder/olivier-blanchard-basics-of-social-media-roi] 9 | Marketing Options International
- 10. Summary By combining social media mention monitoring With the business case for social media marketing with sentiment analysis, you can analyse the strengthening daily, there has never been a better market response to your product news or time for B2B marketers in to master this exciting corporate announcements in real time as well as and rewarding new discipline. Following the after the fact. guidance set out in this paper will help you to build awareness of your brand and demand for your products and services, as well as increasing your Social media activity can have a positive impact organisation’s influence and industry standing. on a downward trend. You will need to clearly define the trend in question, the metrics you will use to establish the point at which it has been reversed, and the tools and timescales you will use to measure progress. Tracking social media-generated traffic to your destination sites (e.g. a thought leadership blog post or campaign microsite) or content (e.g. white paper, video or webcast) will show the extent to which your social media activity is creating interest and demand. Leads directly generated through your social media activities can be tracked by various methods, including voucher codes, clickthrough analysis or even asking prospects where they heard about your brand/product/offer. 10 | Marketing Options International
- 11. About MOI Marketing Options International have taken over 10 years’ user-centric digital marketing and social media marketing experience in delivering effective and measurable customer engagement and demand creation. Our digital services range from HTML emails, website design, PPC and banner advertising through to social media consulting, social media engagement, search engine optimisation and mobile app development. We create digital marketing content that delivers real value to your target audience, through microsites, webinars, videos, iPhone/Android apps, virals, user polls, eBooks and much more. 11 | Marketing Options International
- 12. For further information, please contact: Stuart Morgan Digital Marketing Director e: [email protected] t: +44 (0) 1932 233000 Marketing Options International Walton Reach Manor Road Walton-on-Thames Surrey KT12 2PF www.mointernational.com © 2011 Marketing Options Ltd.