Technology decision-makers use online resources such as community sites and social networks to make buying decisions more than ever. They read product reviews from real users, engage in online discussions, and connect with other actual users.
Here’s a comparison of how the era of marketing campaigns will fade away:
2012: We have an e-book people may be interested in, so we send it out as part of a campaign. Results: We get a list of contacts for sales to call until the list is depleted.
2013: We join in real-time conversations where marketers know the person already is interested and then use tools to monitor social media and become aware of what’s in the news in general. Results: We find out what people are talking about online and offer a solution.
Hybrid marketing
Traditional marketing campaigns now give way to a more real-time focus on getting maximum exposure through online social media. Becoming more real-time means adding to the mix tools such as:
Increasingly popular B2B online review sites in which B2B customers write product reviews, just as we do as consumers for electronics, hotels, and restaurants, on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Engaging in discussions happening now about your products. These are taking place in LinkedIn groups and other social media channels.
Responding to customers in community sites, whether they are “on-brand” (hosted by your company) or “off-brand" (hosted by a partner).
As you can see, Forrester found the top types of content that buyers look for are peer experiences and product reviews. Expert opinions come in behind them at number three.
Sources of Influence
B2B social marketing key points
The strategy for B2B social marketing requires a few shifts in the traditional marketing of the past.
Spend time focusing on the right networks and communities where you can find users discussing your products and services.
Focus on reaching prospects when they are genuinely interested in your products. That means less spamming them and more engaging in the discussions they start and the questions they ask.
However, do not abandon some of the customer relationship management processes you already have in place. You still need to leverage email campaigns, track contacts, and facilitate your marketing processes.
Focusing more toward online social media leverages more value for stakeholders.
Vendors: Getting secure customer testimonials for their products, vendors can influence high-quality prospects that are in the buying process. Input from current users helps in the planning process.
Prospects: Prospects find others who have already completed the selection process and get unbiased information from real users. They can create a vendor short list pretty quickly and easily.
Customers: Customers evangelize products that have helped them succeed and can be seen as thought leaders to help peers. They also network with other professionals in their vertical markets.
Joining online communities puts you in a perfect situation to have real-time engagement with the users of your products and competitors -- helping you to better distinguish between prospects who are ready to make a decision and those who might need more information about how your product fits their needs.
— Russell Rothstein is co-founder and CEO of IT Central Station. Follow him on Twitter @RussRothsteinIT.
Russell, this is consistent with what I've been hearing from marketers recently. Making the sale cannot be the simple target any more. It has to be about ongoing engagement with customers as individuals. Of course, sales are the destination, but the map has changed.
Nice article Russell. Meeting individuals needs and desires is a corner stone of Social Marketing. Particularly, in a ever changing world where instant consumer gratification is now the norm the marketing strategies need to be flexible and nimble to respond to consumer needs. Given that nature of social networking the hybrid marketing approach makes alot of sense. What's been some of the biggest challenges you've seen companies face using this hybrid marketing model?
Yes, have you seen a lot of reorganization of sales and marketing roles since brands began heavily using social media, Russell? You'd think so, given the crossover responsibilities that could occur.
What activities of marketing on social media do you think will support sales ? Do you mean deal with prospective customer initially and when the customer starts going into details and the price, send him to sales ?
In my experience sales in general is a poor user of social media for lead generation. That's best done by marketing. Key is for marketing to focus its social media efforts on activities that support sales. Not just social media for social media's sake!
No matter how you slice and dice it, word of mouth is still one of the best marketing tools.
It also depends what type of customers you have. Are they active on social networks or are they mostly found in social in-person get togethers or at golf courses. If it is the latter case, then word of mouth has its own magic.
The challenges lie in how to most effectively use these new tools.
The whole problem lies in ownership. Is it the marketing department's role to maintain good relations on social networks or is it sales team's role ? A joint effort is required as building the case for a b2b trade and then the actual execution requires the involvement of both the functions.
A marketer cannot easily influence feedback from peer experiences. The only way to improve that is by improving product and service quality. But a marketer can definitely influence reviews on social networks and other product-review websites by answering to users concerns and noting them down for sharing it with both the sales and production team and, if possible, give an instantaneous response to user that his concern will be rectified. If people find that your company cares, they will definitely have a soft corner for it when making buying or continuing decisions.
Good point hounhosp. Traditional word of mouth doesn't usually reach a wide audience in a B2B market. Social media and online review sites are the new "word of mouth", which have the potential to reach a wide and targeted audience.
The challenges lie in how to most effectively use these new tools.
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