Social media marketing is the key to success for B2B companies today. From the right content to the best frequency of publication, there is a lot to consider here. Read on to find out how to lead your B2B company to the top with professional social media marketing.
Target Audience in B2B Social Media Marketing
To engage as a B2B company on the specific form of communication and sensitivities of the users, it has to be determined who falls into the target group. Here the USP and SMP are very important for that. They can help you determine for which customers the product or service is interesting and where these customers can be found on the web so that they can be optimally addressed with B2B social media marketing. With consciously used keywords and well-considered content, the B2B company can be better found by potential customers. Once the target audience has been captured, it is time to decide with which channels and content the audience should be reached. In so-called multichannel marketing, attention should be paid to ensure a uniform brand-building of your B2B business on different channels.
Choose Your Platform Wisely
Social media channels, such as LinkedIn or Xing, are suitable for recruiting new employees but also as lead generation platforms. Due to the fact that users and companies provide valuable content about their business, skills, or interests, it is possible to better address certain target groups with matching tailored content.
Facebook and Twitter are also suitable for B2B companies to run social media marketing. This is due to the fact that these platforms are partly based on large companies and are therefore largely professionalized. The social network Facebook is primarily a network for private use, but an increase in reach can be achieved by its targeting options for content.
These social networks are very effective in combination with a blog. On a blog, a B2B company has the opportunity to share individual knowledge, which has an added value for the customer on top of the sold product. The link to these blog posts can then be shared through social media marketing and contribute to lead generation.
The YouTube platform has also proved to be a very effective social media marketing tool. This is due to the fact that in short videos B2B companies can easily explain complicated issues and provide useful content to their customers.
Platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat also provide an opportunity for B2B social media marketing, but these platforms are highly commercialized and act as a magnet for a very young audience. For this reason, it can be rather difficult for B2B companies to make good use of one of them. Therefore, when deciding which networks should be used, it should always be considered which channel communicates a professional media and brand image for your B2B business and what works best for your target group.
Select Your Content Carefully
Transparency, openness, and honesty are the keys to successful communication in social media. There are a lot of opportunities for an exchange. As mentioned above, LinkedIn and Xing in German-speaking countries have the advantage that content can be disseminated directly into the professional network and thus be targeted more precisely.
Regular content is especially important for social media marketing because with increasing frequency its reach also increases. To potential customers, it gives the impression of diligent engagement. But here is what must be considered: Not everything is valuable content!
When choosing content, you must always pay attention to whether it meets the needs and wishes of the target group and whether there is an added value in it. For example, Google only rewards high-quality content in its ranking and thus leads to an increased conversion rate.
Here is a little tip: Make full use of the possibilities of B2B social media marketing! With the Business Manager tool, Facebook offers a very easy way to create ads, which also leads to an increase in reach and increased traffic.
Make Readers Involved
All the presented platforms and networks have an important commonality. They give users the opportunity to participate and contribute their opinions to a discussion. But before the content is posted, contacts should first be made and then maintained and deepened with suitable content.
Primarily social networks are anonymous platforms. The goal in B2B social media marketing is to make the user a participant and to animate him for mutual exchange. It can be said that social media is like social contact. Like meeting an old friend coincidentally on the streets. Listen, exchange, and learn something new. This process is called social listening. Here, it is observed in which context your B2B business is mentioned and which topics are relevant for your own company. With this new knowledge, it is possible for B2B companies to positively influence the course of business with social selling.
Social selling also helps gradually building strong customer relationships, for example on platforms like LinkedIn by targeting messages. Here a message can be sent to a potential customer, first with a recommendation from a blog post. Because customers appreciate this kind of personal contact, social media marketing offers your business a quick, easy, and cost-effective way to meet those needs. This attention is enormously important for a B2B company because the aim of social media marketing is the know-how leadership through valuable content. Once this is achieved, products and services can be sold more easily,
because of many confirmations through likes or shares, your B2B company is considered more credible and it gives the users some kind of value proposition.
Influencer Social Marketing in B2B
Influencer marketing is almost indispensable in the B2C sector. But even in B2B marketing, a well-thought-out positioning of an influencer is quite effective. The expertise of an influencer on a specific thematic area underlines the credibility of your company and, in addition, that of your influencer.
However, what distinguishes the B2B sector from the B2C is that the influencer used is not aimed at wide reach, but rather at good reputation and quality. Suitable people can be:
- analysts
- journalists
- authors
- CEOs
To recap, B2B social media marketing is a combination of content marketing and networking. It is important to ensure that all activities are tailored to the needs of users, have a constant and on the different channels, a unified brand image is conveyed.
This post has been contributed by D-I-S commerce engineering
D-I-S commerce engineering is your technology partner for B2B and B2C projects. We prepare your business for the challenges of e-commerce and accompany you into the digital future. Our B2B and B2C customers benefit from a wide range of high-quality and, above all, innovative services in the fields of e-commerce, web design, online marketing, and interface management. In addition to individual consulting on process optimization as a part of the digital transformation, we also offer tailor-made connections to merchandise management systems and ERP systems such as SAP Business One and Microsoft Dynamics. D-I-S commerce engineering has successfully implemented numerous e-commerce projects for small, medium-sized and large businesses. For more information please visit https://www.d-i-s.de/unsere-referenzen.html