The 3 Most Important Factors of Any Social Media Campaign
by MGB2B
Social media is no longer something only younger generations participate in. Now more than ever, it’s important that your manufacturing company utilizes it to reach a wider audience. In doing so, you’ll get your products and services in front of people who might not have initially seen it. Building a social campaign can be a complicated process, but when done correctly, the payoff is sizable. The most important thing to remember is that campaigns are “living” pieces of your company. They need to be monitored throughout their lifetime to ensure they are running smoothly. And if not? Here are a few things to keep in mind…
Organic vs. Paid
You’ve surely heard the terms “organic” and “paid” when it comes to social traffic. Organic traffic is the traffic you get on your social account without having to pay. So, if someone finds your profile, likes a photo, shares a post, or leaves a comment, without any prompting, that’s organic traffic. Paid traffic, on the other hand, happens when you pay to have your posts boosted, ensuring they get in front of your desired audience. The likes, shares, comments, and follows that result directly from these paid campaigns are paid traffic.
So you’ve built your campaign, now what?
To ensure your campaign performs to the best of its ability, there are a few things to focus on:
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Your Audience
Who you are trying to reach with your message? There are a lot of great metrics tools out there that can help you determine the audience you are already reaching, which you can eventually build off of. Twitter, for example, has an entire section in their user interface that breaks down your audience. From your audience’s interests, to their buying style, wireless carrier, and demographics, you have an incredibly detailed picture. If your campaign not performing as well as you had hoped, analyze this picture. You have time to reconfigure and adjust your audience throughout the lifetime of your campaign, as long as your monitoring it.
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Your Message
This facet is closely tied to your audience, and varies from each one. Consider speaking to a 28 year old engineer differs versus a 50 year old executive. The interests, abilities, and knowledge of these two people vary greatly. Your message should be tailored to each. Since social media has the ability to speak directly to your audience as individuals (and they’ve come to expect it), make sure you do just that.
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Your Platform
Social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn all have a purpose, and they’re not necessarily the same. Instagram is strictly for photos or easily-digestible videos. Facebook is a melee of articles, photos, thought-pieces, and more. Hopefully, before you’ve created a campaign, you’ve chosen which platform works best for you, your message, and your audience. It’s easy to default to Facebook but if you notice your campaign taking a hit, take a step back. Review the pros and cons of each social site (and believe me, they all have pros and cons.) If the platform you’ve chosen doesn’t check most or all of your boxes, halt your campaign. Move the budget over to a platform better-suited for your needs. It’ll make a big difference in your ROI.
As with anything, there are more than just three factors that could affect your social media campaign performance – these are just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to get in front of the right people, with the right message, at the right time, you have to do your homework.
Continue ReadingB2B Monday Myth: The More Leads the Better
by MGB2B
The Myth: More Leads Means More Conversions, and Thus More Profits
The Truth: Quality and Not Quantity Is What Leads to Conversions
Sure, it might seem like common sense. But how many times have you heard someone say “we’re just not getting enough leads coming in”? If you’ve heard this complaint once or twice – or perhaps you’ve complained about it yourself – you’ll want to read on about how to get quality leads over quantity. Often, it’s better to narrow your approach instead of casting a wider net and catching whatever happens to float in. By filtering out bad leads, you can increase your conversion rate, which is more important than having more leads.
To keep with the fishing metaphor, let’s say you’re only looking for red snapper. If you throw out your lines where snapper don’t usually swim, you’re going to catch a lot of fish that you don’t want and no snapper. Best to drop your line in the spots where snapper like to swim. You may only catch one or two, but you’ll get what you want. It’s as simple as that.
How to Get Quality B2B Leads:
- Tightly Define What a Quality Lead Means. Start with some buyer personas, to make sure all of your marketing efforts are targeted at the right people. But go beyond that. While there are many people who might fall under your buyer persona categories, you also need to examine their behavior. Perhaps a lead is someone who has spent time on your website and downloaded a particular piece of content like a white paper. Or maybe it’s someone who’s filled out a form on your website. You and your team need to agree on the criteria to determine what is considered a quality lead and not just a tire-kicker.
- Implement a Proper Paid Search Campaign. Paid Search is perhaps one of the most misused tools in the B2B marketing arsenal. When done properly, it can get the right leads through the right doors, and thus turn into an effective lead generation machine.
- Consider Retargeting Ads. Retargeting is when you serve up ads to people who visited your website, but the ads appear on other websites. Undoubtedly you’ve experienced this from other brands. A jacket you looked at on one site shows up on a news site your visiting. Or a hotel website you visited for your upcoming vacation serves you an ad on a blog you like to read. It’s not by accident that this is happening. It’s a highly effective tactic that works just as well for B2B brands as B2C.
- Partner with a Trade Publication Who Will Share Lists. Supplementing your own list of prospects with one from a trade pub is a smart approach to lead generation. Even if they won’t give you the list, they might allow you to send out an e-blast to either a portion or all of their subscribers if you already spend money on advertising opportunities with them. It’s a great way to keep your list growing with high quality leads.
- Score Those Leads. If you use CRM (customer relationship management) software, you most likely have the ability to score all leads that come in online (via website, social media, emails, online ads, etc.). They are scored based on a number of things including behavior, engagement, and demographics. And you can weight them however you like. So if Engineer is the most important job title you’re looking for, you can give that a higher score than other job titles. If you don’t want administrative staff to get into your sales funnel, you can give them a lower score.
- Look at Your Data Frequently. You can’t just set it and forget it. The data that comes from your campaigns will tell you what’s working and what’s not. And whether you use a CRM system or Google Analytics, or any other program to measure data, what you see happening each month can tell you quite a bit. You’ll discover which campaigns, search terms, and platforms are most effective.
- Refine Your Process Based on What the Data Is Telling You. Take what you learned from the previous step and rework each step to fine-tune your approach. Cut out what’s not working and test new things to make your marketing dollars work harder.
Again, the overarching goal is to increase your conversion rate. When it comes right down to it, what would you rather have: more fish in your net, or on your table?
Continue ReadingB2B Monday Myth: Product Demos Are Things of the Past
by MGB2B
The Myth: No One Wants to Watch Demonstrations of Your Products.
The Truth: 55% of B2B Buyers Rank Product Demos as One of the Most Influential Types of Content.
Before the days of the world wide web, your printed product brochure and instructional materials were more precious than gold to your audience. Without them, B2B buyers had no way of knowing exactly how your products worked, how they were installed and used, or how they differed from your competition’s. Today, while a Google search won’t tell your buyers everything they need to know about your products, they can probably gather enough information to make an informed buying decision without the need for a demo. Right?
A recent study performed by the Content Marketing Institute and SmartBrief revealed which types of marketing content were most important to those responsible for B2B buying decisions. When asked to rank how much influence various types of content had on their purchases, 55% of respondents placed Product Demos in their top two. With over half of B2B buyers turning to product demonstrations to help fuel their purchasing decisions, you should think twice before removing your demo videos from YouTube. After all, you are the expert when it comes to your products.
Now that you know just how valuable B2B product demos are, it might be time to consider freshening up your collection. Here are five tips to keep your demos up-to-date:
Five Tips for B2B Product Demos
- Give it real-world application. Don’t just demo your product arbitrarily. Have it solve a problem that vexes your buyers.
- Keep it simple. Though tempting, don’t overcrowd your video with too much info. Stick to two or three of the most helpful features and common uses, and you’ll strike a compelling and digestible balance.
- Keep it short. No one has the time to sit through a ten-minute video. Aim for 2-3 minutes – this will not only keep them watching to the end, but them much more likely to share it.
- Include a Call To Action. Conclude your video by directing your viewers to action. This could anything from reaching out for a consultation, requesting a sample, or buying the product itself.
- Go with pros. If you can, have them done professionally. You know your product inside and out. But a marketing or video production team knows how to make it look good. Capitalize on the benefit of your knowledge and their professional expertise.
B2B product demos are not a thing of the past and marketing videos are only gaining popularity. Invest in your demos, and keep your sales team armed with engaging material that your buyers will want to share – and respond to. (Want more marketing video tips? Read this.)
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