Getting Beyond AwarenessTo Generate B2B Leads

wmarx@marxcommunications.com

@wendymarx

http://www.linkedin.com/in/marxcommunications.com

Hat tip to @fatAwesome for video. View their YouTube channel here

A Quick Lesson in Giving

The Non-Tweet

“By not tweeting, you’re

sending a message”

- Anonymous

The Social Media Community

INFLUENCERS

FRIENDSRAGING FANS!

CRITICS (BOO!)

SHARERS

POTENTIAL FRIENDS (PROSPECTS)

“Who you spend time with is who you become. One of the most important decisions is who you’re friends are”

- Tony Robbins

Remember it’s SOCIAL MediaDevelop Strong Ties

Don’t Be a Hermit

• Roughly 99.9% of online banners are never clicked on

• Buyers wait until they have completed 60-80% of their research before reaching out to vendors

BE Visible and Credible

of marketers reported that the number one benefit of social marketing is generating more business exposure

Inability to tieSocial Media to

Business outcomes

Lack of analytics expertiseand/or resources

Poortools

InconsistentAnalytical

approaches

Unreliabledata

Multiple Barriers to Tying Social Media to Revenue

A recent CMO Survey reported that while B2B social media spending increased 9.6% last year, the majority of B2B companies failed to integrate social media into their business practices.

Don’t Be a Silo

Meanwhile...

Social media spending as a percentage of marketing budgets will more than doubleover the next 5 years to 21.6 % of the budget – CMO 2013 Survery

How can you NOT afford to be integrated?

7 Steps to Being Successful In Your Social MediaCommunity

STEP 1 Get Top Management Buy in

STEP 2 Set Goals and Objectives

“The Victory of SUCCESS is half won when one gains the habit of setting GOALS and

- Og Mandino

ACHIEVING them”

• Increase inbound leads at a low cost• Expand reach of thought leadership content• Engage and excite influencers• Better understand, identify, and engage potential

buyers• Improve customer service and satisfaction• Enhance outbound campaign program effectiveness• Improve recruiting initiatives

What are Your Goals and Objectives?

• Social Media Team & Reporting Structure

• Social Media Platform: Posting/Monitoring/Analytics/Reporting

• Integration

STEP 3 Have the necessary structure and resources

“Man Plans and God Laughs”

-Yiddish Proverb

STEP 4 Develop a Social Media Plan

Social Media Plan

thought leaders partners

analysts

clientsprospects

media

fans

potential employees

• What social media channels do they hang out in?

Define your Audience • Who Is Your Target?

• Tie to goals/objectives

• Start small and test

• Tactical plan for each network

Social Media Plan

Tactical Plan Twitter/x hours/month/day/week

• Promote content through Twitter

• Segment influencers and create lists

• Utilize promoted Tweets

• Communicate support issues from Social

• Promote webinars and drive to registration page

• Listen to relevant conversations

• Build reputation

Source: Marketo

Short term objectives:

• Followers

• Mentions

• Retweets

• Retweet Reach

• Replies Reach

• Number of lists

Tactical Plan Twitter/x hours/month/day/week

Source: Marketo

Key Metrics:

• Social Capital--influence of Twitter followers

• Number of potential prospects sent to sales

• Posts

• Number of

registrants/downloads, etc.

• Link with your CRM System• Link with your Marketing Automation• Link with your editorial calendar and

public relations and marketing strategy

STEP 5 Tie social media to the rest of your marketing and include in all phases of the buying process

• Establish a social media policy that all employees adhere to

• Provide measurable goals/objectives

• Ensure knowledge of tools

STEP 6 Train employees

• Daily/weekly/monthly reports

• Metrics aligned with business goals

STEP 7 Be accountable

• Don’t try to be everywhere

• Don’t broadcast, brag, or be boring

• Be a good community member

The Social Media Community Rules

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•Think Top of the

Funnel

•Think Content

How Social Media Leads Happen•The Endless Turkey Meal

•Curate: Value by association

Source: Hubspot

Case Study:Major B2B

Marketing Company

Goals/Objectives

• Move to top of funnel

• Generate leads• Fill out a form for an e-book• Register for a webinar

The Bottom Line: Not about sales, all about educating, inspiring

Overview• Social Media and Content Team (5 people each) reports

to Director of Content and Engagement Social and Content Creation reside in Marketing organization

• Engaging 8 am to 5 pm ET daily• 10 + Twitter posts a day• 10 LinkedIn company page posts• Some of the same posts as in Twitter• 3 Google+ posts• 1 Facebook post• Many of the same posts in Google+ and LinkedIn• 127,000+ Twitter followers• 136,00+ Linkedin followers• 270,000 Facebook likes• 17,000+ Google+ circled 200,000/month Blog visitors• Twitter most effective, then LinkedIn

“No one will engage or follow you if don't share helpful information”

- Anonymous Content Manager, major B2B marketing company

The Content Engine• 4 writers, 1 designer, 1 manager who also writes• Focused around one initiative, i.e., webinar• 5 to 10 blog posts a day all with Call To Action • 60 ebooks for call to action• Presentation on Slideshare with link to ebook• Infographcs• Check list, game, quiz on Slideshare or blog • Influencers – Guest blog• Tweetchats 2X a month, #mcloudlive• Hashtag for webinars: #marketingcloud• Give away books of thought leader• Get questions from Twitter -- first 10 who ask questions get a free book• Have fun: Friday fun

Thought Leader Webinars• Promote it X weeks in advance on Twitter, etc.• Get thought leader to tweet?• X Blog posts about it• Blog post afterwards?• X posts afterwards?• Videotape webinar and gate it• Blog post around the recording• Manually determine action of lead, if downloaded• Lot of ebooks, attend a webinar, targeted for call• If first time at webinar, put into nurturing in the company website or marked as a hot lead• ID on end of URLs so can determine which channel someone comes in from to track effectiveness

• Promote it in advance on social media

• Get thought leader to tweet

• Blog in advance

• Blog afterwards

• Videotape webinar and gate it special thought leader offer

What to Do if You’re Not This Company?• If first time at webinar, put

into nurturing in the company website or if participated in several activities marked as a hot lead

• ID on end of URLs so can determine which channel someone comes in from to track effectiveness

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