Social media marketing is no longer only for brands that sell directly to consumers. B2B brands have been making waves on social media, stepping into the territory that has traditionally been dominated by B2C brands. Here is a guide to creating a successful social media marketing campaign for B2B brands.
Social Media Marketing Guide for B2B Brands:
Your Audience Should Be Your Top Priority
B2B brands need to dig deeper when coming up with strategies to market themselves on social media. If your industry is not as flashy as fashion and cosmetics, you’ll need to shift your focus to your audience. Research is key to understanding what your audience wants, what they will respond to and how they will perceive your efforts. Audience research should be the first piece in the B2B social media marketing puzzle. It will lay the foundation for the rest of your strategy.
Take a look at successful B2B campaigns, make a note of how competitors are marketing on social media and use these examples to understand what audiences react to.
Goals and Measurements
Understanding your audience will not only enable you to set realistic and strategic goals to build your brand on social media, but it will also help you to find the correct ways to measure whether you are indeed reaching those goals.
If you are focussing on bringing in new customers and increasing revenue, you’ll want to set a goal related to lead generation that can be measured in clicks and conversions. This will give you an indication of the following:
- How well is your audience responding to your messaging, and
- How many potential new customer relationships are being created by your campaign.
If your main focus will be building the brand reputation, you should be focussing on reach which can be measured in impressions, engagement and follower count. This will provide an overview of how your audience is growing, which kinds of content they like to interact with and how your audience is connecting with your messaging.
Form a Strategy
When your audience research and goals are in place, you need to write down a plan of action to follow through on your intentions. Your strategy needs to provide for the following:
- Outline your target audience,
- Clarify your goals,
- Clarify how you will measure progress,
- Confirm the platforms you’ll be working on, and
- Confirm the types of content you’ll be creating for each platform.
Your strategy can also include details on how these steps will be executed and show research on your competitors.
It needn’t be an overwhelming and complicated document. Rather, aim for a simple roadmap that can be followed to reach your end destination. It should be clear, concise and easy for anyone to consult when doubt arises.
Create a Personality
Another important part of your social media marketing plan is the brand personality that will be used when interacting and engaging on social media. The personality should already be quite clear in the brand’s marketing efforts, and can be used to steer interactions on social media.
Many B2B companies are overly professional and even a little stiff on social media. That is often a huge turn off for audiences. There’s a difference between being boring and being professional, and you’ll need to find your brand’s personality sweet-spot to balance these two aspects. There are fantastic examples of B2B brands creating exciting, believable personalities on social media. So, don’t shy away from researching to find inspiration when creating a personality.
If you’re unsure of any aspects of social media marketing, digital marketing or inbound marketing, contact WSI OMS today to consult with us on your B2B marketing plan.