The B2B Business Case Composition For Social Media
10 BENEFITS
Make no mistake: �Social� Media is Business Media.
Yet many B2B are not convinced that these gamechanging media demonstrate significant benefits for their business sectors & unique challenges
This attitude is Costing them Potential profits, Business leads, Industry relevance and market share to their smarter online competitors
10 Benefits
The need of the hour? A better understanding of the tremendous B2B business case for social media
#1 Extend Branding and Relationship building Efforts
B2B branding is High Touch and is mainly established through directly interfacing with customers and relationship building (Vs. Ads & campaigns in B2C) Social Media provides an array of new touch points for B2B brand executives to interact with prospects and customers. • Due to two-way, real time attributes, social medial tools enable a highly personla branding experience for B2B customers and prospects. • The convenience if social medai allows more B2B executives to build relationships with current and prospective buyers...and building relationships is core to all B2B marketing and sales efforts.
#2 Tap Professional Communities
B2B professionals actively network online to find jobs, share knowledge, solve problems & build their network of industry contacts • B2Bs can build professional communities centered on knowledge sharing & reducing challenges that professionals face every day – AND leverage these interactions to build brand, reputation and prospects • Company’s can participate in existing communities and networks to share insights and help solve problems • Through the value of their community participation, Companies can increase their standing and improve the potential of positive third party referrals
The B2B market seems smaller than the B2C market thus, expanding reach is imperative for recognizing and creating new business opportunities • With social media, companies now have access to a world of new markets...and new business leads • Through monitoring online conversations, B2B executives can learn of changing needs and emerging opportunities that can fuel new offerings and practice areas to drive new revenues for the organization • With their newfound reach, B2Bs can also identify companies with which to establish revenue generating partnerships
#3 Grow Reach
#4 Support Thought Leadership Programs
B2B relies on thought leadership to communicate, differentiate and position their offerings • Through text, audio and video, social media gives thought leaders a dynamic new platform to demonstrate their expertise and gain exposure • Companies can create rich, in-depth conversations, professional forums and knowledge exchanges around their unique ideas, articles, perspectives, reports and methodologies • Can ”rejuvenate and repackage” their existing thought-leadership content in new ways for these new channels – and thereby maximize the ROI from existing content
B2B buyers are heavily influenced by third-party feedback in their purchasing decisions – both to identify solutions and to limit risk to their organizations
• Due to providing objective, third party experiences and feedback, favorable WOM (word-of-mouth) reduces buyer-side risk of big-ticket B2B purchases • Programs implemented through social media help to facilitate brand advocates that can help sell B2B offerings through spreading positive mentions and endorsements
#5 Increase ThirdParty Influencers (Word Of Mouth)
#6 Dramatically shorten sales cycles
Unlike impulse-driven, low-risk purchases, B2B sales cycles are far longer, with buyers doing lots of research and reference checks • Educating prospects throughout the purchasing cycle is a core role of B2B marketers, with social media providing them tremendous new outlets for knowledge sharing that can facilitate faster sales cycle • Social media tools and platforms provides new ways to communicate information and answer buyer questions about their offerings much more quickly • In providing two-way communications, companies not only inform prospects, but also build trust and credibility that can work to increase sales in shorter periods.
Social Media is the MOST cost-effective media. Ever.
• While social media requires an investment of budget and professional resources, it’s nowhere near the cost associated with other media • Even in tough economic climates, B2Bs can afford social media programs and use these initiatives to gain competitive advantage • As the cost of each sale acquired through social media is significantly lower, ROI and profit margins can increase
#7 Decrease Marketing Spends
#8 Minimize Complexity of Services
B2B offerings are often very complex and necessitate a learning curve for buyers, both pre – and – post purchase • The information exchanged, and relationships built, through these social channels helps to decrease confusion and, in turn, increase the purchasing rates of B2B products and services • Informing and helping prospective buyers through social media can help position B2Bs as trusted advisors and decrease the concerns associated with high learning curves
Companies must identify ways to Strengthen and improve their competitive advantage – of both their offerings and their marketing strategies • B2Bs must remain relevant with existing & potential clients - they must be active in the media that their markets deem relevant and actively uses • Since many B2Bs are slower to adopt social media, many companies can leverage firstmover advantages within their industries • Due to the insights gleaned through monitoring online conversations, companies can identify new offerings and needed improvements around which to strengthen their competitive advantage
#9 Creating competitive & sustaining advantage
Due to smaller market size and higher-priced offerings, the value of each B2B customer is much greater than B2C customers
#10 Intensify CRM Efforts
• Social media technologies enable new CRM methods for B2Bs to improve their customer communications, extend customer service and share knowledge • Social media tools and programs, B2Bs can not only inform but involve clients in every step of the brand development process and in return, deepen these relationships
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