B2B and B2C – just a letter difference, right? Well, yes, and no.
Truth is, the world thinks that B2C marketers have all the fun. They launch hilarious and impossible campaigns while the B2B world believes in the power of being sober and proper.
But why should it be the case?
B2C customers are also B2B customers. The same person buying high-waisted jeans may well be choosing software for their workplace the same day. So why is it you cannot reach the customer on the same platform that a B2C brand reaches them?
Sounds ridiculous, right?
Yes, because it is.
So if you are wondering if social media platforms help you connect with your customers, it is a resounding yes from us. But don’t just take our word for it. Read this blog, and you will be a convert halfway through it.
Let’s get right into breaking the B2B social marketing myths everyone thinks are true.
B2B marketing is a serious business. For years, most B2B marketing campaigns have been boring, lifeless, and just static. Even the videos in B2B marketing forget to have a little fun.
But as we all know, social media has been a game changer in the world of marketing ever since Facebook came into existence. D2C brands flourished with the opportunity to bypass middlemen and reach their customers directly, all the while monitoring their reactions, engagement, and more.
B2B marketing can do well by adopting the same process and benefiting from the analytics and insights B2C marketers have enjoyed to date. That’s not all. Being on social media platforms can have many direct and indirect benefits for B2B brands. Let’s look at a few of them.
One thing everyone talks about in B2B marketing is reputation management. Social proof goes a long way in cinching a deal in the B2B world. And social media can help you improve your brand in that area too.
A Mckinsey study tells us that social media platforms can help brands establish themselves as service-oriented companies. By engaging with your customers in real-time and setting up social media as a query-addressing platform, you can build trust in the market. The study tells us that customers are likely to spend up to 40% more if companies respond over social media. And for the companies that don’t leverage this platform, it leads to a 15% higher customer churn rate.
We know that customer retention is much more important than customer acquisition for long-term growth, so leverage social media for it.
Studies tell us that customers need up to 5-7 impressions to remember a brand. This goes for B2B brands as well. Moreover, a B2B Pulse research tells us that digital self-service, improved omnichannel online presence, and extensive availability of content is important for US buyers to choose a brand.
Relying on email, sales calls, and other traditional techniques will not be enough anymore. B2B buyers use over ten channels to evaluate a business, and an enhanced social media presence ensures that your target audience sees you where it matters.
Data is gold in marketing, yes? If a brand knew what their customer likes, dislikes, prefers, and is concerned about, then they can tweak the messaging and everything would be perfectly okay. Social media platforms can help you with that.
You can analyze the interaction on your ads, organic posts, and outreach messages, to name a few, and understand the customer mindset. Of course, surveys do this, but here it is voluntary and is mostly less expensive.
Everyone makes a plan to achieve the highest possible ROI for the campaigns they run. But it does not always materialize that way. This bag seems to be bigger, specifically in B2B marketing. 74% of the surveyed marketers agreed to be setting goals, while only 3% achieved that. That is a big number, isn’t it?
Now, let’s take a look at another similar pattern. 86% of B2B marketers agree that they have a presence on social media while only 32% interact every day. While they create profiles, many marketers here do not consider it an important or relevant task.
If you change this, your ROI numbers will also change.
Now that we have established that social media plays a significant role in the success of B2B marketing campaigns, let’s see how to make that happen and what social media platforms to focus on.
Anyone who has been around the block a couple of times knows that LinkedIn is the B2B haven, no doubt. And that is not without reason. LinkedIn is the best platform to establish a presence, generate engagement, and even work on conversions for a B2B brand :
Repeatedly, LinkedIn has proven itself to be the best B2B social media platform, and it is time to get on it if you are not already there. So go create your company’s LinkedIn Page today.
Do not just rely only on company pages to establish your presence on LinkedIn. Build personal branding for your top management and your best employees so that you create a far-reaching impact.
So after LinkedIn, where is everyone going to hear the latest news and updates in every industry? Twitter, of course. In fact, the conversation is much more interactive and detailed on Twitter. Building a presence on Twitter can help your B2B business connect with the right professionals, your target audience, and the general public, boosting brand awareness much more than you imagine.
Twitter allows you to interact with your audience using :
Of these, Twitter Spaces and communities can really help you understand what your audience needs so that you can send the right messaging via marketing.
Instagram and Facebook have been the social media platforms that started the game for social media marketing. While they are significantly more successful in B2C campaigns, we have seen some great results in B2B industries as well.
Meta Ads, specifically, are one of the best tools to boost your content and reach your audience at various touchpoints in their customer journey. The META framework allows you to craft ads specifically for Brand Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. This means you can do it all within the same platforms, all the while getting incredible insights into consumer behavior.
Take a look at this Shopify Ad that clearly shows how this platform can do wonders for a B2B business.
This is surprising for many, and we agree that understanding that TikTok is good for B2B marketing can take some time. But if you really look into it, TikTok ticks a lot of boxes :
SmartSheets is one such brand that has been leveraging TikTok with great success over the last couple of years.
Believe it or not, social media and B2B marketing are a match made in heaven. They personalize your marketing, humanize your communication, and provide great insight into consumer behavior. All the things you need for success.
But yes, consistently finding images and videos to post on these social media platforms feels challenging. We get it. That’s why outsourcing design or choosing an unlimited design subscription often feels like the most practical thing to do. Another option is to use DIY design tools where you can choose from a wide range of templates and put your design together in minutes.
