Insights

B2B Social Media Questions

Over 75,000 people already know the answers to these B2B marketing and B2B Sales questions…

Our founders, Radha and Sanjeev, are acknowledged as thought leaders in leveraging digital channels to generate business impact – specifically for B2B companies. Over the past 10 years, they have spoken at numerous events, published several articles and updates, and have interacted with B2B business leaders across the spectrum.

Distilled from all those discussions, here is a curation of the most relevant questions that B2B companies have about social media and content marketing – and their answers.

How exactly will Content & Social Media help the sales efforts?

Content will help you say exactly what you want to about yourself. Who you are, what you represent, what problems you are solving for your target audience, what is the impact to them of not solving those problems, and how this way is better than the alternatives they are living with today. That is, everything you would have told them if you had the chance to meet them.

Unfortunately today, you will likely not get a chance to meet them that early in the cycle. Hence, your content must become visible to them when they are looking for answers to their questions online. Then, if you have an outbound engine running, there is a greater chance that your target prospects will engage with you when you reach out to them. The response to your email campaigns should be better. The cold calls could be warmer. The first meetings could be much smoother as the prospect is better informed and engaging with you after knowing quite a bit about you and how you can help. So, your Outbound efforts should directly benefit.

#B2BSales

#B2BSales

How exactly can our B2B Sales team use Content Marketing and B2B Social Media?

Later in the sales cycle you want to stay in the eye line of the prospects and to cement a relationship with them after an initial conversation. These people are likely in the “Nurture” or “No immediate need -stay in touch” bracket.

Here’s a couple of suggestions:

Map the social footprint of the prospect. Connect with them on LinkedIn, follow them on Twitter, find and follow their blog, and check if they contribute articles to any publication. Then, subtly and sensitively, engage with them. Every Like, RT or Share notification is a reminder to them of your presence and interest in what they have to say. Intelligently comment on what they write, ask them questions and give them the opportunity to showcase their expertise.
Use the content your company creates to stay in touch. Based what you know about the prospect’s interests and situation, share relevant blogs as they get published. Add a personal note on specifically why you think the content may be useful to them.

This non-intrusive way to stay in touch is more likely to keep you in their minds when the need arises. This is clearly a more effective way than buzzing them every month to check if they’re ready to do business.

#B2BSales

#B2BSales

Why should we target specific segments? Why can’t we reach out to all of them?

Well, of course, you can! There’s a big caveat though. Remember, if you’re talking to everybody then you’re talking to nobody. To catch the eye and to get folks to engage with you -what you say will have to be extremely specific to each segment. Only content that talks about these pain points specifically will get them interested in you v/s someone in the competition. This suggests that the message intended for one target segment should not muddle the thinking of another segment. This means that you will have to run several, independent, parallel communication efforts.

This means more effort, money, and time. So, here’s the caveat -if you have the resources and the time, by all means, reach out to every single target segment out there. But if you, like everyone else, are constrained by time and resources, then prioritize. There’s no choice, really.

#B2BMarketing

#B2BMarketing

Can content or social help our email and calling teams get in front of more prospects?

Connects are becoming harder because the decision-makers and influencers at the target customer organizations do not want to engage with “vendors” early in the sales cycle. People quote studies that show that anywhere from 55-80% of the buyer journey is now traversed outside of the direct influence of the selling organizations. Here content and social can play a powerful but indirect role. If your content answers the questions they are seeking answers to then they will consume it. If your social channels provide them valuable information, they will engage. The key is appearing in their eye line often enough with distinctive, informative, high-quality content. If this has happened consistently, when your inside sales or Cold Calling team reaches out to them there is a much greater chance that they will connect -even if it is to say that they don’t want to talk business right then.

#B2BSales

#B2BSales

How can we leverage content to capture leads?

Well, first the content (say blogs) you create must answer the Qs of your target audience and must be promoted where it is likely to appear in the eye line of the prospects while they are seeking those answers. Then, it’s on to some tactics.

Add Calls To Action – Not too many and definitely not force-fitted into your content. Give the reader ample opportunity to connect with you for more specific information. Don’t ask for too many details on the form or you may scare them off.
Extend – Extend the scope of your content beyond free-to-air blogs. Write a White Paper that clearly promises to provide a wealth of valuable information beyond what the blog does. Mention the WP in the blog and link to a crisp landing page. Make the WP available only to those who provide their contact info.
Showcase – Insert references to use cases and case studies in the content as appropriate. Allow the reader to explore the site beyond the specific blog they landed on. “You may also like” links are a good option. The idea is to let them traverse as much of their information journey as possible on their own in an organic manner. Presumably they will then fill out that “Contact me” form your B2B Sales team needs.

#LeadGeneration

#LeadGeneration

Why should you consider Twitter as a part of our B2B Marketing?

There are 4 reasons:

Your target customers are on Twitter and more are joining each day. This is a good opportunity to appear in their eyeline, share your own content, other relevant content, and engage with the stuff they are sharing. The key is being useful to your target audience. That is better done with a mix of your own content and other relevant content that you make the effort of finding for them from the public domain.
There’s the opportunity to go out multiple times a day and share content and opinions that your target audience should care about. No other channel will tolerate that frequency.
This is a great place to become a part of a wider conversation about topics that you care about (use #s). You, and your content, get exposure to a relevant audience beyond that directly connected to you.
This is the only channel where you can engage directly with specific individuals who may otherwise be out of your connection scope.

#B2BSocialMedia

#B2BSocialMedia

What are some B2B Social Media and Content Marketing don’ts?

Here are our no nos.

Making it all about me –an excessive focus on what we want to say, our product, our offering, unsubtle and thinly-disguised “buy me” content
Improper expectations – Remember the place in the funnel – content is to inform, social media to engage, and the only actions you can realistically drive are clicks to the website. These are all largely top of the funnel activities and should only be measured for their impact as such. 3. Invisible tracking – this is a double threat. At one end is the “But my competitor has 10000 FB fans so I also want..” conversation. At the other end is the refusal to rely on the relevant metrics and go by gut-feel instead –“I read a lot of stuff on Quora so I think it will work for my company too”.
Impatience – These are all top of the funnel activities remember. This calls for time to put in place a strategy, find the right audience, the triggers that work for them etc. If you’re not in it for the long haul – why get in at all?

#B2BSocialMedia

#B2BSocialMedia

Does Content Marketing work?

In the last year, we’ve reviewed 1000 or so B2B blogs that Midas Touch Consultants has written for technology and industrial clients so we can claim perspective. Those who have not benefited make 1 or more of the following mistakes:

Writing what you want to write rather than what the target audience wants to read: If your blogs are about yourself, your features, your services, etc. unfortunately only the folks who wrote them will read them.
Not promoting it enough: Your content must appear in the eye line of the folks it is intended for -repeatedly. On the social channels they use, in rotation in the lead nurturing communications you send out, in your newsletters, and on the LinkedIn status updates of your key employees. If no one knows what you have written how will anyone find their way to it?
Not doing anything with the folks who do find their way to your content: So, people read your blogs -now what? Do you have the appropriate CTAs to drive conversion? Do you help folks go to other relevant pages seamlessly? Is your “Contact me” form easy to fill out?

Content marketing works, but are you set up to reap the benefits?

#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing

What should we blog about?

There are 3 suggestions for places to look at:

Ask your customers -What are the issues they want answers to? What information would they value? What problems do they want solved?
Ask your inside sales and sales team -what questions do they encounter most frequently that relate to the situations and challenges the target audience faces? What keywords occur most frequently in their daily conversations?
Check the social channels -what is being talked about? What seems to be capturing the interest of the audience you are trying to engage with? This research should give you enough ideas on what to write about.

#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing

B2B Content Marketing myths and why you should you not believe those.

Quantity is everything – No, you need to focus on quality. Low-quality content can easily get lost
Social media is not important – Wrong. Why keep your content at the mercy of Google’s algorithms. Promote it to cash on it.
Anybody can create content – Wrong. B2B content, especially, requires business understanding, great research capabilities, and excellent writing skills (in that order)
I will measure the success only with one metric (aka leads) – You will do a disservice to your efforts by doing this. Also look for engagement, time on site, website visitor journey on site, conversion time, etc.
I need content only for SEO – Argh…Instead of writing for search engines, write for humans. Touch their emotions. Establish connections.

#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing

DO NOT start your social media and content marketing efforts if…

You are not sold on the idea of social selling
You don’t have a good website
You can’t commit time to it
You don’t have integration of marketing and sales
You don’t have the commitment from your subject matter experts

#B2BSocialMedia

#B2BSocialMedia

Why is it so hard to find good B2B content writers?

Yes, companies find it difficult to find good content writers who can write B2B-focused content such as blogs, white papers, eBooks, etc. Why could this be the case? To our mind, we think it is because –

B2B content writers not only need excellent writing skills but also require the ability to understand the business problem and questions they are trying to answer through the content
B2B content writers need excellent research skills
B2B content writers need the ability to understand various domains (even though they are not the subject matter experts)
B2B content writers don’t need to be technical writers – in fact, most of the techno-business content does not need to be purely technical
B2B content writers need to be able to work closely with subject matter experts and elicit the required information from them

#ContentMarketing

#B2BSocialMedia

What can I expect as an outcome of my B2B Social Media efforts?

Well, you will start seeing outcomes at every stage of your sales funnel
1. Increased awareness and visibility – More and more people whom you had no access to earlier will know about you
2. Engagement – People will start connecting with you, liking your content, sharing it.
3. Interest – You will start seeing increased traffic to your website
4. Warmer sales connections – Your prospect outreach will be warmer because the chances are that they would have heard about you All these things, eventually, translate into more business (did you notice that we have not mentioned the word leads here? :))
#SocialMediaRoI

#SocialMediaRoI

What is the ideal frequency for creating the content?

Unfortunately, there is no standard answer to this question. However, let us try to outline the factors which can help you decide the frequency –
- What is the type of content? For example: You can post 6 tweets a day but you can do only 1 webinar in 4 weeks
- What is the objective of your content? For example: Blogs are for creating awareness & white papers are for lead generation
- What are the resources you are working with? For example: It would be very hard to come up with multiple high-quality videos every week, but you should be able to create one infographic every week
- What is your promotion plan – because, creating content is not enough if you don’t know how to promote it
- Who is your target audience & what do they expect? Well, as we see, it is not a very straightforward decision. You need a well-thought content marketing strategy & flawless execution to make it a success!
#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing

What type of content should you focus on?

There are over 50 types of content which you can create. If you are just starting with your content marketing efforts, start with blogs – these are textual and relatively easy to produce as compared to other popular content formats such as videos, presentations, infographics, or podcasts. So what should you keep in mind while deciding the ‘type’ of content?

What is your objective
What does your target audience like to consume?
Which content you can create on a consistent basis?
Which is the best type to communicate your values & thoughts?
The required frequency and, therefore, the resource requirements
Promotability (how easy/ difficult is it to promote on other channels)

There are several other factors as well, but answers to these questions is a good starting point.

#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing

Who can create the content – Subject Matter Experts/ Technical Writers/ Content Writers?

The short answer would be – whoever can tell the story for the customer. With B2B Content, it is important to note that it is not about you, but it is about the customer. You need to make the customer the hero of your story. You need to provide answers to customer’s questions. No matter how great your product is, your content cannot just describe the product – it has to explain how it solves the customer’s problems. With this in mind, anyone who ‘understands’ this can write your content. Your B2BContentWriter should be able to do the following –
- Understand the questions and challenges of your target audience
- Understand the business and the offerings
- Elicit the right information from the subject matter experts
- Use the information to create a piece of content which resonates with your target audience
- Understand how social media works (because, after all, social media is going to be an essential element of your content promotion efforts)
Does that make the choice easier (or difficult)? 🙂
#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing

What is the ideal frequency for creating the content?

Unfortunately, there is no standard answer to this question. However, let us try to outline the factors which can help you decide the frequency –
- What is the type of content? For example: You can post 6 tweets a day but you can do only 1 webinar in 4 weeks
- What is the objective of your content? For example: Blogs are for creating awareness & white papers are for lead generation
- What are the resources you are working with? For example: It would be very hard to come up with multiple high-quality videos every week, but you should be able to create one infographic every week
- What is your promotion plan – because, creating content is not enough if you don’t know how to promote it
- Who is your target audience & what do they expect? Well, as we see, it is not a very straightforward decision. You need a well-thought content marketing strategy & flawless execution to make it a success!
#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing

What are some of the best ways to use LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is one of the best social media networks for B2B companies. Here are some simple ways companies can leverage this powerful platform –

Maintain an active company page – that’s like your website within LinkedIn
Participate in relevant LinkedIn groups – share knowledge, answer questions, ask questions and gather feedback
Publish articles on LinkedIn Pulse – LinkedIn is becoming one of the largest content platform
Post interesting status updates – again, share stories, knowledge, tips etc.

These are probably very basic and obvious things to do – it’s just a matter of doing these diligently 🙂

#B2BSocialMedia

#B2BSocialMedia