It’s Time for B2B Social Media Marketing to Generate Leads

Filed under Discussion, Uncategorized by Aaron Pearson on 23 January 2012 at 14:16 {no comments}

A B2B Voices Q&A  With Kipp Bodnar and Jeffrey L. Cohen

I just finished reading The B2B Social Media Book: Becoming a Marketing Superstar, by Kipp Bodnar (day job at HubSpot) and Jeffrey L. Cohen (day job at Radian6), hot off the presses this month. I recommend it. Despite the title, it doesn’t try to encompass everything you need to know about B2B social media marketing.  Rather, it tries to open the lock box to social media lead generation. Frankly, that’s the way we’re going to get a lot of B2B companies to start to take social media more seriously.

I’ll follow up with a longer review but I had a chance to ask Kipp and Jeffrey a few questions after reading the book, and here’s what they had to say!

Aaron:  You both obviously have a lot of passion for B2B marketing in general, and social media specifically. Why? Where did that come from?

Kipp: It is what I have always done. Since the beginning of my career I have worked with B2B companies mostly at marketing agencies and then here at HubSpot. I love the challenge of B2B. B2B marketing is the ultimate in problem-solving and storytelling. It is awesome.

Jeff: I, too, have always worked for B2B companies, including marketing agencies that focused on B2B and companies that sold through distribution. It is more exciting to live in a world where the product quality and company knowledge are the basis of a sale, rather than the correct Pantone color. The longer sales cycles require companies to build customer relationships that can be nurtured, rather than offering promotions and discounts.

Aaron: What is most misunderstood about B2B social media marketing?

Kipp: For me it is reach. In traditional marketing, B2B companies obsessed over narrow targeting because executing marketing tactics was expensive. Social media has changed this. Narrow targeting hurts B2B companies online. Bigger reach is needed to generate word-of-mouth and leads online. Even if a social media follow isn’t a potential fit as a customer, they have the opportunity to share your content with someone who is, but this is impossible to predict. Thus the need to actively build reach online. 

Jeff: The notion that social media marketing is a business-to-consumer-only activity is most misunderstood. Many conservative B2B companies think that just because there is less volume of conversation around their company, products and industry, that social media is not for them. This ignores the benefits that social media brings to search, and the ability to leverage and share the knowledge and expertise imbedded in B2B companies to build and nurture relationships required for lead generation. 

Aaron:  Why the intense focus on lead generation in the book?

Kipp: Lead generation is the genesis of B2B success. Marketing must generate leads and revenue to survive. Yes, branding, public relations and other aspects of marketing are important, but they can’t compensate for the lack of a solid lead generation strategy. If lead generation is sound, all of those other aspects of marketing can supercharge it. 

Jeff: We know that social media adoption is very slow for B2B companies, no matter what online surveys say. We chose this important slice of social media activity, lead generation, because when success, it demonstrates real value of social media. It is much easier for C-Suite executives to endorse rolling out social media across an organization if it has already generated revenue through this one approach.

Aaron: I especially liked your more integrated focus on bringing prospective customers along a path from initial reach to signing on for content (like liking a page) to ultimately responding to a call to action and becoming a lead. Give us an example or two of who does that well.

Kipp: Breaking Point Systems down in Austin, TX is crushing it. They sell network testing equipment, which is a high-consideration and long buying cycle B2B purchase. We featured their vice president of marketing, Pam O’Neil, in the book. They have an awesome blog, a website that is super SEO-optimized and a social media presence that is engaging and drives traffic and leads back to the website.  Pam told us that they have a 2800% ROI from their online leads. 

Clear Risk is a finical services company in Canada that is also doing a great job. They have an awesome Facebook page, Twitter page, LinkedIn Page, blog as well as a calls-to-actions and lead generation offers. 

Aaron:  What about nurturing existing customers?  Private B2B communities are big in some industry segments like enterprise software, for instance, but this seemed to be less of a focus in this book. Why?

Kipp: Honestly, that is another book. You’re right. Lead nurturing as well as customer retention is huge revenue-centric application for social media. We just didn’t have the real estate to cover it properly in The B2B Social Media Book, so we decided to save it for another one. We think that having a solid customer generation strategy is the right first step, and too many companies still need to improve that. Lead nurturing is the next step.

A History of Disruptive Innovation in B2B Marketing [Infographic]

Filed under Infographic by Kate Brodock on 20 January 2012 at 11:00 {no comments}

An excellent infographic by the team over at Eloqua looking at breakthrough technologies and processes that forever changed one segment of the world: B2B Marketing professionals.

When it Comes to B2B Content, Don’t Go it Alone

Filed under Application, Discussion, Soap Box by Allan Schoenberg on 4 January 2012 at 06:32 {no comments}

One of the most often asked questions when I speak is around content — “Where do you find so much information about your company to post?” The answer is easy: That much content doesn’t exist. What B2B companies fail to realize is the power of partnerships and connecting with other users for content. Shannon Paul also makes a good point about B2B content:

Many folks in the B2B space often blame the lack of social media content opportunities on the fact that what they do doesn’t directly impact consumers, but I don’t buy it.

Finding good, original content can be difficult. So stop trying so hard. Instead, focus on ways that you can find content from others and collaborate with others. Here are ways that have worked for us:

Find internal champions who will send you content proactively and make sure you give them their just internal rewards for helping out.

My inspiration partner happens to be 8 years old and drinks hot chocolate.

Identify the key content aggregators in your industry and work with them. This takes time and effort but will pay off in the long run.

Experiment with content on platforms and times to find what interests your audience.

Finally, don’t be boring. Any company can post a news release or a research report. It’s up to you to make it interesting and fit within your brand standards. While you want to be taken serious as a brand, you should also find ways that capture people’s attention, and sometimes that requires a little bit of fun.

If you enjoyed this you may also want to read:

You are What You Read

Social Clutter or Social Clarity?

Content Curation: What Does it Take To Be Successful?

Is Motivation the Key to Success?

Social influence matters! No, it doesn’t!

World-Class social practices for B2B companies

What’s your “I” in social media?

Digital on the Rise in B2B, But Audience Engagement Lags

Filed under Uncategorized by Aaron Pearson on 5 December 2011 at 23:40 {no comments}

Recent research from Forrester has good news and bad news, from my perspective. On the one hand, Tracy Stokes, in “Marketing Budgets for 2012 Expose a Fear of Commitment,” notes that B2B marketers are moving to digital even faster than their B2C counterparts. Unfortunately, how they are doing so seems to be putting immediate gratification (i.e. leads) over the kind of richer relationship-building enabled by social media and creative digital programming.

First, the good news. According to Forrester’s research, which I would treat as directional rather than quantitative because of its small sample size, more than half of B2B marketing leaders see an economic recovery in their industry next year, compared to less than a third of B2C marketing leaders. Also, digital media now comprises 28% of B2B marketers’ budgets, ahead of their B2C counterparts (22%).

Are you investing in the long-term relationship?

Wow, right? Except what are they spending it on? Not innovation, which is expected to be cut in half from an already small base. Not brand building. Not relationship building. Transactions. Or at least that’s where the emphasis is.

I understand, I’m empathetic, really.  If you don’t win today, there is no tomorrow. But that’s a little like the federal government cutting taxes to spur economic growth without a plan to address long-term deficits. Ultimately, there’s a nasty price to pay.  What are some of those costs? Here’s four:

  • Commoditization
  • Reduced customer loyalty
  • Declining pricing power
  • Reduced market focus

Ouch. As with everything in life, success is about finding a healthy balance of investment through the marketing funnel – and beyond it to nurture customer advocates too. I’ve been part of award-winning communications plans that piled heaps of interest into the top of the funnel only to be plugged up at the bottom, and that’s no good either. But we have great opportunities now to do build stronger B2B brands and increase customer and prospect engagement all while effectively driving sales.

Building an positive and engaged bond between your brand and your customer is a powerful defense against commoditization. Leveraging social media to improve product development and customer service grows advocates and reinforces loyalty. A real commitment to listening to customers through social channels is effective (and cost-effective) at reminding you what your brand really is all about, and what it’s not about, so the organization stays focused on where it can be most successful. Here’s to a digitally engaged 2012!

B2B Creativity is Not an Oxymoron

Filed under Discussion, Resources, Soap Box by Allan Schoenberg on 28 November 2011 at 07:39 {2 comments}

One of the myths around B2B communications is that the industry lacks creativity – or the drive to be creative. I can’t think of anything that’s farther from the truth. And while it’s true that B2B companies don’t buy the flashy Super Bowl ads or use various mascots to win over customers, we are challenged day in and day out to think differently.

Another Lego creation at home.

Just like with B2C companies, creativity can be driven by a company’s culture. We’ve always been focused as an organization on innovation, which is why we’ve been so successful at trying new things, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and mobile devices. Ben Parr over at Mashable posted last year how B2B companies will be using social media as part of their creative campaigns. And Aaron Pearson just posted here on B2B Voices a post on world-class B2B social practices that’s a must read.

But there are some rules and guidelines to follow.

  1. Your ideas should always be in line with the brand you are trying to convey. Don’t be creative just for the sake of being creative. While this can work more in the B2C space, it rarely works with B2B companies. We have fewer opportunities to sell our products and services and every opportunity counts. In addition, B2B purchases are usually long-term investments by companies and they want to trust you. Any creativity — whether its very smart and interesting or immature and insulting — will reflect back on your organization.
  2. Study the competition — and be better — don’t copy or instigate them. Your competitors can always give you new ideas and thoughts, but I’ve seen B2B companies try to take on their competition head to head in ads and direct mail. That’s hard to pull off successfully (it can be done) and I always feel it’s better to focus on your strengths than your competitors weaknesses in paid campaigns. Save your competitive arguments for non-paid mediums such as your website and the media.
  3. Always be thinking about driving sales for the organization — this means being fully integrated. We know in B2B the sales process and cycle is much longer than in most B2C decisions, so you will need to think long-term for your campaign. If you are thinking of a new creative campaign it needs to play out online, at trades shows, through direct mail and in person. “One hit wonders”, like a weekend sale, are simply not the norm for B2B campaigns.
  4. Take risks, but know your limits. Good creativity helps you to stand out, but as you think about how creative you should be and how you will use the ideas read points 1 – 3 above.

Here are some other ideas from Marketo on being creative in B2B communications. It’s worth a read if you are looking to learn more about this topic.

I’ve been lucky to work on both national and international B2B and B2C campaigns in my career and personally I’m glad I’ve gravitated into strictly B2B. The creative challenges are different. They are more demanding. They require more time to succeed. And they need more buy-in from the organization. Not to take anything away from B2C creativity, it’s still demanding, but I’ve always liked that challenges and pressure as a professional of being more creative in B2B communications.

If you enjoyed this you may also want to read:

Finally, a comprehensive B2B social media study

World-Class social practices for B2B companies

Are you ready for a real-time B2B world?

Using social networking sites in B2B businesses?

Mission Impossible: B2B Blogger Goes Rogue

Filed under Case Study by Aaron Pearson on 8 September 2011 at 00:02 {2 comments}

Update: Folks, my previous version implied mom bloggers are in it for opps with Wal-Mart, et. al. Obviously, that’s not true and wasn’t intended and moreover there’s some great opportunities for partnerships with those companies if handled properly. My apologies – my wife blogs too and there’s a lot of great stuff out there, which is really my point.  Look forward to meeting you all Saturday.

Saturday is the 2nd Annual Minnesota Blogger Conference in Minneapolis. I happened to be looking on Twitter when a batch of tickets was release and decided to take the plunge and nab one.

Folks, I’m going to be the ugly duckling at this gig. You’re all B2B marketing people, so you know what I’m talking about, right? What we do is often not pretty, almost never glorious.  Mainstream appeal, not so much. We’re hawking servers, or accounting services, or industrial filters for heavens’ sake. We think this stuff is big-time important, but our kids don’t particularly care.

But so what? I believe there are principles of good blogging that transcend these differences and I intend to find out what they are. In fact, I’ve set a goal for myself:  Be Like Allan Schoenberg.

Plus, I'm on a mission!

Our little operation here at B2BVoices Nation is not big but we do okay – 4,700 views in June has been the recent high water mark.  And Allan’s posts seem to be consistently tops in readership. What if I could be like Allan? What would that do for us, if I pulled my weight for once?

My mission, if I choose to accept it (well, okay) is to try to generate Allan Schoenberg blog post readership. It’s to your benefit folks because it means this stuff will be more interesting for you! Plus, in my last post, I noted blogs trump LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter on influence over business technology purchase decisions, so hey, this could benefit some of you too!  Stay tuned.

Business Tech Buyers Are Using Social Media, But Twitter? Not So Much

Filed under Discussion by Aaron Pearson on 5 September 2011 at 22:06 {no comments}

I’m at least a month late in reviewing Forrester’s annual 2011 Social Technographics for Business Technology Buyers report, by Kim Celestre (@kcelestre). As I was last year. :-)  It’s still worth doing. Forrester has conducted this survey for three years running and for those of us looking for the impact of social and digital media on B2B tech, this is about as good a study as we have available to us.

Here’s Forrester’s blog post.

This year’s report appears to show a real maturity in the behavior of technology buyers in social media. Basically, there was no substantive change in what percentage of their audience were social media spectators, critics, conversationalists, creators, etc. I’d venture to say that the average buyer here has pretty much found their comfort zone with social media engagement and is settling in on a specific style of engagement.

Twitter and Facebook are at the bottom of about a dozen online and offline sources.

The good news is that the average level of engagement is higher than for a typical consumer. For example, nearly a third are content creators online (for business purposes), while only 23% of the general population describes itself as such.

Where are they, though?  Forrester also looked at the sources of information these business technology buyers use, and guess what?  Twitter and Facebook are at the bottom of about a dozen online and offline information sources. (Only 5% claim they use Twitter for business purchase decisions.) It turns out more traditional channels like your website or conferences remain hugely important, if someone less so each year.  However, there are real opportunities to find larger segments of your target audiences if you can find niche communities online (LinkedIn does a bit better for instance) or if you can create a private community of your own customers.  For what it’s worth, e-newsletters remain important too.

I would also note that blogs appear to be fairly important sources of information. (Of course, I would say that!) This longer-format, “old-school” social media channel may be particularly well suited for discussing the complexity of B2B technologies. I would also argue Twitter is often a great channel for reaching influencers and opinion-leaders.

Bottom line:  Technology marketers should assume their target audiences are using social media, and probably more than just for consumption. However, they should consider nurturing more targeted online communities and ensure social media engagement efforts are seamlessly integrated with other marketing channels, including media relations, events, advertising and the website.

What Google’s Acquisition of Motorola Mobility Means for Marketers

Filed under Discussion, Uncategorized by Aaron Pearson on 17 August 2011 at 14:33 {2 comments}

Much has already been written about how Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility might shake up the mobile device market, reshape the Apple vs. Android battle or even redefine the patent landscape.

Courtesy Google

To me, it’s a signal to marketers, including B2B marketers, that it is most definitely time to have a mobile strategy.

Google is offering, what, $12.5 billion in CASH. If the folks in the Googleplex are willing to risk that much in liquid assets, it’s because they expect A LOT of people to do a lot more with mobile devices than they’re even doing already.

By coincidence, last Thursday, I got to hear Dan Grigsby, the founding partner of Drivetrain, and Anders Davidson, the CEO of MobileOn Services, speak to our local Business Marketing Association meeting about mobile marketing. Grigsby was a Minneapolis-St. Paul “40 Under 40,” was one of “MPLS/St. Paul Magazine’s 75 Best Brains,” and his firm just developed the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune’s new iPad app.

Grigsby compares where we’re at with mobile right now to the early days of the Web. The companies that were really leveraging the Web were inherently Internet-driven outfits like Netscape or Cisco or Yahoo.  But now, every single company needs to be on the Web in some capacity. We’re now just starting to enter that mass adoption phase for mobile.  And increasingly, that means tablets, not just phones. In fact, Grigsby claims that by the end of the year, there will be more iPads in the U.S. than iPhones.

Courtesy Apple

Davidson’s firm developed a platform called BuildAnApp that is designed to make it easy and affordable for small businesses and non-profits to develop their own mobile applications. He observes that nearly 50 percent of companies today have neither a mobile site nor a mobile app. His message? Your mobile device “may be a small computer, but it’s not a mini-PC.” As you start to think about just how you’ll participate in the mobile web, remember that people don’t use these devices the same way.

For example, people tend to be more task-oriented on their mobile devices. “Nobody cares about your ‘About Us’ section in the mobile app, or your company history,” he observes. They’re looking to get something done.

Another suggestion: Find the right tool for the right objectives. Davidson offered a B2C example: If you’re a pizza place targeting travelers near the airport, you’re going to want a mobile website. If you’re a pizza joint targeting neighborhood regulars, you just might consider an app.

Grigsby reminded the audience that your customers may already be assuming you have a mobile app, and that might well drive your prioritization. He said 1,000 people downloaded the new Star Tribune app from the iTunes App Store before they even announced it was available. Those 1,000 people simply assumed there was one.  Which means the day before that, 1,000 other people tried and failed to find one, and the week before that, 7,000 people tried and failed to find one. What do your customers expect from you?

Given the richer relationships B2B marketers are often seeking with customers than their more typically  high-volume B2C counterparts, I see lots of mobile app opportunities here and I also see a need for greater personalization. There’s certainly more to be done than simply outfitting the sales force with iPad-friendly presentation decks. More to come, I’m sure.

How do you reach the guy with the wallet?

Filed under Application by Kate Brodock on 5 August 2011 at 12:35 {3 comments}

When you market in the B2B space through social channels, a large part of your audience can often times be non-decision makers.  I had a client who works in the production/post-production technology industry for the film, advertising and broadcast verticals – straight B2B transaction-  ask me what the benefits were of using tools like Twitter were for selling a product that’s tens of thousands of dollars directly to a production house or film team.

My answer, simply put? Finding the users of that product/service, highlighting the pain point and our solution, creating a buzz and a demand from the bottom up.

FIND THE PRODUCT/SERVICE USERS

Using this example, when an extensive piece of technology is implemented across a large enterprise, the decision to do so doesn’t usually involve all the users, but a handful of decision-makers that head IT, Finance and maybe a few other departments. In other words, most of the users of the product/service have little say in the purchase of the product/service, but they’re the ones most affected by the implementation.

These users are the ones who’s daily processes will be changed and improved by said technology implementation.

HIGHLIGHT THE PAIN POINT AND YOUR SOLUTION

Because these users are the ones who’s lives you’ll be ideally improving, you’ll want to make them directly feel their existing pain point, and communicate to them that you have the solution.

CREATE BUZZ AND DEMAND FROM THE BOTTOM UP

Now that they know you have the solution, part of the process of you reaching the decision-makers comes from upward pressure from the users.  In part, the decision-makers pain point becomes the users – their employees – clamoring for a solution to their own pain point (which they’ve found from you).  If you’re top-of-mind for the users, it’s likely this will reach the decision-makers.

It’s a simplified model, and only part of the sales and marketing process that goes into the equation, but something to think about as you’re contemplating the ways social media can help your B2B marketing.

B2B Companies Discovering the Value of an Intangible Asset

Filed under Soap Box by Aaron Pearson on 10 July 2011 at 23:17 {one comment}

I’ve been getting a lot of interest in “branding” lately from B2B clients – coincidence? To some degree I’m taking it as a sign of a better economy (sluggish economy seems to be hurting B2B companies much less). These organizations are thinking about extending their offerings into new markets and to capitalize on new opportunities, and not just about selling more of the same to the same people.  That’s strategically riskier but it’s also the best way forward for significant growth. Imagine where Apple would be had it stopped with the iMac!

But about that risky part: These established organizations, some mid-sized, some large and global, are all nevertheless established, with a loyal customer base.  Their brands have come to mean something very real for those customers.  A quality brand is a precious asset – IBM’s brand is worth an estimated $60 billion. It needs to be treated with care.

And yet the fact is many B2B companies don’t have a clear understanding of what their brand really means. It’s not that they’re not collecting insights about their companies or products from customers. It’s usually more that they’re not bridging from the attributes customers like in their products to what the higher level benefits are that transcend products and have proven timeless.

What’s a brand? A brand is not spin. In fact, it’s authentically what customers believe about you. It’s what opens doors to new customers. It’s what makes the company sustainably distinctive even while it is getting harder and harder to differentiate on product attributes alone.

At Weber Shandwick, we develop Strategic Brand Frameworks to help clients clearly articulate their brand positioning. We recommend our clients spend some time articulating what their aspirations are for their brand. We call that defining the Brand Vision and it’s always the starting point. It gets at why you are undertaking this branding initiative at this point in time.

But at that point, you need to do some external research and have some discussions with customers and prospects. You should include your channel if it’s applicable (dealers, for instance). The purpose is to g to collect insights into both the functional and the emotional benefits your customers receive from your products and services. Functional attributes tend to be easier to deliver and therefore less differentiating and less motivating as message drivers. Emotional benefits are harder to deliver and, therefore, more differentiating and more motivating as message drivers. We need both, because the reality is they are related: You can plot these functional and emotional benefits on a “benefits ladder” and see how the functional attributes ladder up to emotional benefits.  From these benefits we can craft a brand positioning statement that lead to the central brand idea that is the basis for slogans, logos, campaigns and other creative expressions of the brand.

Especially for well-established brands, we then recommend quantitative research testing to ensure the brand positioning is optimized. And then you’re ready for the second half of the challenge, which is effectively communicating this freshly articulated brand and brand expression. But that’s a topic for another post.

In the meantime, here’s a fun and insightful video from Google’s Dan Cobley on how branding is like physics, from a TED talk:

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