As time and technology evolves so do the marketing capabilities in B2B spaces.
Marketing methods are changing at a rapid pace, which is challenging businesses to keep on top of trends and implement them into their strategy.
For the companies that have effectively mastered email marketing they probably have an upper hand when it comes to advertising on new media platforms such as social media purely because they know what positioning works best for them.
The diversity of social media is never ending. If you take into account how many different consumer markets we can reach out to across only a few platforms, you’d be amazed. It’s about finding your social media voice, and making it work for your business. As an example, if we look at LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, what can you bring to the table to ensure you are utilising these platforms?
This is the same method that every successful business in their early years uses. They’ve spotted a gap in the market and ran with it. Likewise with these platforms. Think about how you can stand out from the millions of businesses who prospect, advertise and recruit on a daily basis using these mediums.
So what are these ‘social media voices’?
LinkedIn is the home of 25 million professionals that market themselves, prospect, recruit and teach best practise.
When using LinkedIn, we try to keep our overall tone professional and corporate whilst sharing business related articles and prospecting. However, when recruiting we would show off our culture and involve some more fun and casual pieces. It’s great to share business news, articles, tips and recruitment posts.
If you want to prospect via this channel our one bit of advice would be, do your research!
Tip 1
Approach a potential client knowing the ins and outs of their business and cater your message to their particular role and responsibilities. Create a need and a solution (the solution being your product/service).
Tip 2
Don’t be generic – personalise every message. Look at the specifics and what they’re sharing, it gives you some great pointers to begin the conversation. If you need some help in doing so, watch out for future blogs surrounding this!
Tip 3
Make it relevant. If you reach out to the wrong person it will only waste your time.
For example, when selling a telephone system, if you reach out to the Marketing Director, your message may not resonate as well as if you had reached out to the Manager or Managing Director. However, if you are selling web design, the Marketing Director may be the best person to message.
What about Facebook?
Using Facebook is more likely to aid you on the recruitment front. This is why we don’t share too many business focused articles. We want people to see our Facebook page as fun and engaging and create the appeal to work with us.
Due to this we tend to share events we’re going to or hosting, awards we’ve won and general activities happening around the office.
Our advice would be to keep it fresh. Make people want to stop scrolling through hundreds of post to look at yours!
Tip 1
Keep a consistent theme. Although yes, we want to post fresh content, we also want people to recognise who wrote it. This can be through the way you write, branding or even just your profile picture. Make sure you have your logo noticeable on each post so you hold people’s attention and remain in their mind.
Eventually, if not right away, your prospect will get curious and click on the familiar business page that is your own, popping up on their timeline.
Tip 2
Add a call to action button on each post. An impulsive mind with a sparked interest will call or message you right away. Don’t make them look for you contact details because, the significance and importance of your product/service will fall flat in their mind. People are easily distracted, enable them to take action immediately.
Tip 3
Keep it brief. Provoke reading by keeping it short and getting to the point quickly.
Next on, we have Twitter.
Twitter is the medium where both business and consumers come together to share anything entertaining, interesting or influential.
When using this platform we like to share everything. All things business, fun, day to day, exciting. Well… you get it. Every little thing. It keeps everyone brand aware, in the know and most importantly shares the culture of our business.
Tip 1
Pick your business personality. Choose how you want to be perceived by the public and create your strategy based on this. After this, it makes producing the correct content easier for you.
Tip 2
Post little and often. Keep your clients, employees and potential prospects in the know.
Tip 3
Hashtag and retweet.
If you share other businesses posts they are more likely to bond and do the same for you. This then allows you to open up to a broader audience.
Last but never least, Instagram. In the new world of technology and smart phones people love to allure followers into their feed with exotic, engaging and impressive photographs of their life. This can be massively effective to a business, when used correctly. This, much like Twitter labels your brand culture.
Tip 1
Make your photographs, videos and stories aesthetically pleasing. There isn’t anything more attractive on social media than a good looking timeline.
Regardless of whether or not you have the best content, not everyone will absorb this in the intended way unless something is eye catching to them beforehand.
Tip 2
Make your Instagram a business page. This will allow you to look at the various demographics and alter accordingly to who you want to target.
Tip 3
Make your permanent pictures captivating and keep the non-significant content on your story. Doing this will grab attention, round up your general culture whilst not making your feed a mess.
There are no explicit rules when it comes to marketing on social media. Slowly but surely there will be new methods of advertising and alongside this, our business strategies will evolve too. It is all about trying new methods and seeing what works best for you, in your particular industry, for your target market.
Want to know how we measure our social media performance? Stay tuned for a new blog.
We like to share our best practise, follow Chrome Telecom’s social media pages for more tips and to see how we’re getting on.
