Katy Howell, CEO of Immediate Future, reveals how to refine your social media strategy in order to prove ROI
Let’s cut to the chase; we need to prove value (ROI included) in social media. According to B2B Marketing’s Social Media Benchmarking Report, it is one of the biggest challenges.
While not the only value to be gained from social, lead generation is a quick win. And quality lead generation that is tracked to sales is more than a win – it’s ROI. With the right process, thoughtful planning and smart use of content, it can be achieved quickly. This will give you a proof of concept that will encourage greater investment in social.
But squeezing leads from social is definitely more than blasting out links to landing pages every once in a while. As the report reveals, for the 56 per cent of B2B brands treating social as ad hoc, it is unlikely to work well. Why? Because social platforms haven’t changed your marketing priorities: your buyers have. They source information online. They ask for referrals, recommendations and ideas. They want relationships with you, your competitors and other buyers.
In truth, lead generation in social requires you to create a marketing engine. One that nurtures and nudges leads as well as targets your content with precision and relevance. Always on, you are there at the point of decision making. Always on, you can bend and flex to trends and capture those sales opportunities.
It requires planning, consistency and some social media smarts. Let’s delve into the details:
1. Structure the unstructured
Clearly no one in their right mind wants to target the 316 million Twitter users or 364 million LinkedIn members. Segmentation is key to maximising results. That means taking the unstructured data from social and structuring for analysis. Analysis that gives you actionable insight. You want to be looking for:
– Who is talking about you, your products, your competitors.
– Where the discussions take place.
– When they are talking about you (marketing folk are quite active Saturday mornings on Twitter and Sunday evenings on LinkedIn, for example).
This will give you a base line from which to create personas and segments, split by demographic, geographic and behavioural data. It is often the latter, behaviours, which identify the biggest lead opportunities.
Using third generation monitoring tools (e.g. Crimson Hexagon or Brand Watch) can take the hard work out of analysis, but LinkedIn is a manual exercise that will require time (and a lot of spreadsheets).
2. Data-led journeys and stories
The insight from social conversations doesn’t end there. Data steers content too. You want the assets to hand that will motivate downloads, phone calls and contact from a lead. So sharpen content by looking for the nuggets in the data that tell you more about audience interests, hot topics and pain points, then tailor your content accordingly.
Go one step further and identify what they are asking for and when against your purchase cycle. Mapping against the funnel allows you to identify the triggers and focus on lead generation.
3. It was always about distribution
We’ve all got a bit obsessed with content. So much so that there is a fair amount of it online. Videos with a couple of hundred views; whitepapers now forgotten; infographics pushed once or twice and then dropped. Instead, let’s squeeze the value from content with good distribution.
A. Pay to play!
Let’s be honest, the social platforms want us to advertise. Organic reach is reducing rapidly, but paid social such as sponsored and promoted posts has enormous value. Finely targeted and with continuous optimisation, you can cut through the noise and reach prospects fast.
Social selling
It’s not just about company profiles. For many in B2B you already have a network of subject matter experts and sales staff. All of whom, with social training, can accelerate reach and drive interest. Better still, they can continue to nudge and nurture prospects through the funnel, beyond marketing activity.
B. Watch and capture
A simple mechanic is to create watch lists of relevant audiences and capture prospects at decision-making points, which is great at events and during key trends. Look for prospects requesting recommendations or asking relevant questions and grab them by offering relevant content.
C. Organic routine
Don’t turn organic posts off and on. Ensure your content engine keeps distribution wheels turning. Put paid behind posts that work well, and engage with comments and likes. Build interaction that nudges each contact closer to a lead.
4. Sharpen, hone and prove the value
Be smart with your social investments by looking at what works and what doesn’t. By measuring everything from engagement by time of day, leads per topic and quality lead by content type, you are optimising your strategy.
The variables are endless, but should fit to your business. The aim is to hone your results for the best results and in a matter of weeks you will know what content, copy, topic and pain points are generating the greatest number of leads.
Finally, measure outcomes beyond the lead. Often this means pestering your sales team or popping into the CRM. But the more leads you can attribute to sales, the easier it is to deliver the ROI good news to the C-suite.