For years, social media in B2B Marketing has been underutilised. Many people still struggle to understand its place in B2B, which totally surprises me. Social allows your business to connect with your customers in real time. It allows you to be closer to them than ever before.
Although, before you get active on social media, it’s important to set a strategy and to agree which channels to utilise. They may not all suit your industry and you may need to use various channels for different parts of your funnel.
Lots of B2B brands fall into the habit of posting for the sake of posting, but it's highly important to have a strategy behind every post. It can become difficult to avoid being too sales-y, but there are a few tips I can offer to help you WIN on social media!
Paid campaigns.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat all allow you to run ads against ‘custom audiences’—contact lists you upload into their platforms that matches your data with their user database. If you connect your CRM by adding their tracking pixels, or uploading mail lists, you can then retarget your leads at various stages of the sales funnel.
Stay on brand.
When you create your paid ad, it’s important to stay on brand to build brand association. Every paid post you create, should ensure featured signature brand colours. Show personality, emotion and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
Share testimonials.
I don’t know about you, but I can't resist reading reviews and testimonials before a buying decision! And that one negative comment to 20 positives can put me off of a making a purchase, why? Because people trust people, so use those testimonials to your advantage.
Reduce uncertainty.
If you create demo videos, client videos and testimonials to showcase what your service can do for your prospects across social media. You can then share them across social to help to build trust.
Utilise resources.
Once you’ve created a valuable piece of content, don’t just publish once, instead, turn it into micro captions and bite sized clips and share numerous times, linking back to the original source.
Why is this a good strategy for social? Because the longer a user spends on your posts, the higher in the algorithm you will climb. More people will see your post and impressions and reach will increase.
Encourage the leaders of your business to get involved.
This shows authority and creates trust. If you have a leader willing to be the face of the brand, utilise them. Set aside some time each month to create new content with them.
Organic posting.
We know that the customer journey isn’t over once they’ve bought into your service or product. If you want to keep them coming back time and time and again. Create useful content that will interest them and they will find beneficial. Help them to continue to succeed and show your appreciation.
Claire Sherriff, Freelancer Social Media Marketer at The Social Sherriff.