Generating B2B leads using social mediaHeather BurnettMarketing Program ManagerLarge Enterprise | Public
Today’s discussion
• Justifying social media for business
• Building a community for IT Expert Forum
• Goals and metrics
• Best practices and key takeaways
2
3
Justifying social media for business
4
Social media contributes to customer awareness, sales support and revenue.
4
• Primary goal is always about audience
• Create a community where members can openly discuss the
product/service and “expert” members can comment
• Great way to measure awareness and engage customer (surveys,
contests, points system, etc.)
• Address public concern
• Be relevant and address customer pain points
5
Customer awareness
• Lead generation – help Sales to
“Always Be Closing”
• Augment pre-sales nurturing
• Establish and nurture the
relationship between the customer
and the organization
• Track lead generation in CRM tools
(i.e., Salesforce.com)
6
Can social media support sales?
7
IT Expert Forum: a new community for IT professionals
How we got started
• Traditional generation activities drive sales engagements
– Landing zones
– Online events
– Face-to-face events
– Content syndication
– Telemarketing
8
Evolving the model: developing a social media hybrid
9
Traditional Landing Zone
Social Networking Site
www.itexpertforum.com
10
11
12
Create a community that’s ready to grow and prosper.
12
13
Building the community
• Reached out to existing leads
• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Paid Search
• Rented a list for email blasts
• Leveraged blog and other forum membership
• >100 Members on Day 1
• >350 Members after Month 1
Leveraging other communities
• Integrated existing social media components
• Our blog (www.migrationexpertzoneblog.com/)
and blogger has been consistently ranked in the
Top 10 Windows 7 Influencers*
• We introduced our existing audience to
IT Expert Forum
* Source: December 2009 Collective Intellect Report14
14
15
Goals and metrics
16
Define specific goals and metrics to measure success.
16
Goal: growth• Fresh content
• WidgeAds (via KickApps)
• Email blasts
• Paid search
17
Metric: Number of members vs. goal
Goal: community engagement• Email nurturing promotes
fresh content
• Surveys that pique members’ interests
• Promote online events via the Spotlight section
• Integrate your SMEs into the community
18
Metric: Survey responses, assets uploaded by members, email blast metrics
Goal: member interaction• Use “points” to encourage
member interaction
• Contests, games and surveys
• Widgets help members push and upload content
• Evaluate data to understand customer
19
Metric: Email sharing, return visits, number of groups and community leaders, site discussions, blog comments
• Identify which members fit the lead demographic
• Evaluate custom reporting to identify valid leads
• Conversations and threads can be captured in reporting
• Site-generated email nurturing
• “Points” help rank, prioritize and validate leads
• Telemarketing nurture and sales-ready leads
20
Goal: leads
Metric: Number of leads generated for nurturing, number of leads generated for sales reception, revenue in pipeline
Lead lifecycle
21
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
22
Metrics
23
Community ActivityNew RegistrationsTotal Site DiscussionsTraffic - PagesTotal Page Views
Total Page ViewsHome PageMy Home PagesPlay PagesFull Comments PagesProfile PagesList PagesMessage Board PagesGroups PagesChat PageMember JoinMember Login
ContentTotal Uploads
Media Files ApprovedPhotos UploadedVideos UploadedText Blogs PostedAudio Files Uploaded
• Basic Reporting
– Metrics can be applied to specific goals
and ROI
– Site traffic paid search or email blasts
– Registration email nurturing
Metrics
24
• Custom Reporting
– More robust
– Registered members may convert to leads
– Total downloads new content
– Confirm brand awareness
– Custom enhancements, surveys or
WidgeAd activity (paid media)
Custom ActivitySite Enhancements
WidgeAd Activity
Leads
Email Nurturing
Total Downloads
Survey Activity
Total Site Impressions
Home Page Impressions
Client Migration Impressions
Enterprise Virtualization Impressions
Metrics
25
Best practices and key takeaways
26
Going beyond the blog with a social media hybrid for lead generation.
26
• Social media real results – not just a pretty, fun toy
• Consider the goals and the potential of the site
– Become a thought leader in the industry
– Gain and enhance customer loyalty
– Track marketing media use and popularity
– Build a community of experts
– Lead generation potential
• Publicize messages in the community – promote products and
messaging
27
Value-add for marketing plans
• Remember audience comes first
• Know that building the community is a main goal
• Carefully consider the goals for your site and plan early
• Create a marketing plan to include activities that build the site
• Set real and measurable goals that map to budget and track ROI
• Leverage knowledge and resources
28
Best practices and key takeaways
29
Best practices and key takeaways
• Encourage interaction and engagement
• Keep it simple; specific and strategic content - no “spray and pray”
• Utilize widgets to keep site fresh, dynamic and informational for you
• Allow organic dialog to take place on the site; don’t police it too much
for reasons like damage control
• Identify your lead demographic and generate reports accordingly
• Track lead scoring (points) and be mindful of constant calibration
• Reward your members to build loyalty so they come back and share the
site with their friends
www.itexpertforum.com
30
Top Related