In her Dreamforce 2013 presentation, Kristy Grayson, Executive Director of Marketing at Deluxe Corp, explains why social marketing is essential for B2B companies and how to effectively utilize it.
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4. Today’s topics
Why social marketing is necessary for B2B
organizations
Social & the buyer’s journey
Real world social tips that work
Building a social roadmap
7. Why social marketing?
92%
Of all B2B buying cycles
begin online
57%
Make a decision before
engaging with sales
8 hours
Time spent consuming
digital content before action
is taken
Source: Forrester, 2013
8. Relevancy – jumpstart a mature brand
Rajeshj (CTO of Andrea)
@Deluxecorp is going to be the
frenemy of banks with their bank
switching tool #finovate
charlesepotts (Fintech guy)
#finovate @Deluxecorp SwitchAgent Bam!
sampasser (VP @communityamercu)
Cool to see @Deluxecorp adding to their
switch kit offer - this is something
everyone has been waiting for #finovate
WARobins (WF Exec)
#Finovate @Deluxecorp makes Wells the
whipping boy 4 SwitchAgent(SM) 2 move
Bill Pay…Lots O stats at end
DP_PSAlliances (Exec ProfitStars)
Ready for day 2 at Finovate in New
York. Day 1 best of show were
@moneydesktop and Deluxe's
#SwitchAgent
comScoreFS (Leading FS company)
#Finovate best in show from Day
1?@dashlane, @LearnVest, @ShopKeep,
@ckmack, @Deluxe get our votes.
9. Social humanizes the brand
People buy from people
Elevates the sales team from
product pusher to insight sharer
Promotes industry dialog
11. Social & the life of a buyer
•
•
•
Not ready to buy?
Nurture the lead
Awareness
•
•
•
•
•
Consideration
•
•
•
Conversion
Retain &
Renew
•
•
•
Reads blog posts
Visits social sites
Attends events
Searches forums
Reaches out to their network
Researches the web
Attends events
Reads testimonials
Reaches out to their network
Watches video testimonials
Reads case studies
Subscribes to blog
Follows on Twitter
User events & best practice sessions
21. Leverage social campaigns for events
Promote those who are
talking about our event
Social ready messages
for field sales
Communicate
throughout the event
22. Use social tools for implementation
Select a Marketo Social Application
Develop a Marketo Social Campaign
Launch!
25. Refer a friend facebook campaign
23% increase in registrations
120% increase in opened emails
500% increase in clicks on event
related Facebook posts
8.6% increase in Twitter followers
635 tweets throughout the
conference
27. Social marketing roadmap
KPIs
ROI
Executives
Marketing
Corporate Brand
Sales Reps
Set
Goals
Create
Buy-in
Define
Strategy
Develop
Content
Engine
Effective
Planning
Keep
Focused
Personas
Editorial Calendar
Contributors
Develop
Team
Small and nimble
Review
& Revise
Organized &
Documented
28. Wrapping it up – take away
Social marketing isn’t going away
Haven’t started your journey yet – do it now!
Follow your buyer’s journey
Integrate social as a thread that runs through your content
engine and marketing machine
Learn what’s worked from other consumer & B2B
organizations
Create your social strategy and road map
Start small and demonstrate a few quick wins
Measure for success
100 year old idea – original business idea rarely lastsWhile checks will have a long tail we realized many years ago we needed additional business lines…hence our transformation storyWe are now one of the few companies providing offerings to financial institutions and small businessesAs a 100 year old company – and as we diversify our product portfolio - its imperative that we transform our brand and obtain permission to engage as an expert in marketing and other services which is far different than our core payment products.
These statistics speak for themselves. If your B2B organization is not investing in social marketing – you may be too late.The Corporate Executive Board completed a study of 1,000 B2B buyers of various sized companies. Before a company ever reaches out to a supplier, they are 57% through their due diligence and decision making process.Like consumers, B2B buyers learn from the internet and peers. They seek reviews and conversations from social media sites.So the day of a buyer phoning a sales representative to find solutions to their problems is over. We need to be where buyers are learning.This is why we are investing in our social marketing strategy.
In Hollywood they say, “If they’re not talking about you…you’re not relevant.”Example:Finovate Fall 2012“What do you do besides SwitchAgent?”
In B2B organizations, at the end of the day people still buy from people. We’ve used social marketing to elevate our sales representatives and allow them to develop a personal brand by sharing insights to critical problems in the financial services industry. Social sites are not forums for product pushing. And – this concept doesn’t come naturally for some sellers. In Deluxe’s social selling program, we invest in frequent coaching of sales representatives. We also provide content and social ready messages. It is an investment in time and resources.
You may recognize this slide. It’s a typical buyers journey funnel.
Define buyer personas – based on accountabilities and jobs to be done. (Decision maker, influencer, user)Develop a matrix of key messages to ensure that content is aligned to commercial insight.Map out the type of content by stage in the buying cycle.This helps us to determine what content we need to create and what content is consumed by persona.
Social marketing sites can be noisy. Like any good marketing activity its important to use proper targeting. With enhancements in sites such as linkedin we’ve been able to target specific groups and titles for our social efforts.
Social media isn’t just a Facebook site that lies in the hands of Corporate Communications.Social needs to be the thread that runs through all integrated marketing strategies. Whether it’s launching a new product, retaining existing customers or gaining awareness – we need to continuously feed the social engine.This is an example of how Deluxe uses an integrated campaign approach to solving the market need of dealing with Identify theft. Content and social channels allow us to use compelling approaches to tell stories and subtle lead the bank or consumer to our Deluxe Identify Theft protection solutions.
Influencer marketing has always been an important component to our marketing strategy. Social media has allowed us to more easily leverage industry influencers, endorsements and our own social team to gain awareness and ultimately drive inbound leads to our web property.Forward Banker Blog – A Daily Download of Wisdom for Bankers Leading Industry TransformationForward Banker is a financial industry community that Deluxe created and hosts. Topics and content posts center around areas of market need. Contributors include hand-picked industry leaders and influencers as well as some Deluxe leaders.We are very careful not to focus on thought leadership for thought leadership sake. Our goal is to provide commercial insight leading to a solution that can be solved by Deluxe. We rotate Deluxe product banner ads which are linked into our marketo lead nurture tracks.We create posts two to three times per week.On average we have 130 visits a day from our twitter posts.We typically receive around 5 to 10 re-tweets per day.We have some high profile industry bloggers such as The Financial Brand and Transcard Payments that frequently repost and exchange in dialog.Best of all, we have seen a direct correlation between our blog posts and leads coming to our website. In January alone, we had 11 solid leads from this tactic.
A few years ago, Deluxe launched a consumer-focused social campaign to increase check usage. Stand Up for Your Right to Write Checks is an advocacy campaign designed to rally consumers around the value of choosing checksThe campaign targeted 20-somethings because research shows that this is a key growth segment for checksTo support the campaign, Deluxe is used a variety of communication channels and tools, including Facebook, Twitter, online video, editorial outreach and a micrositeThis is especially exciting because it’s the first time Deluxe has reached out directly to consumers about checks The tone and style of the consumer campaign may surprise you because it’s unlike anything Deluxe has done before. And that’s a very strategic choice. To fully engage with consumers in their 20s, it is critical to reach out to them using the language, attitude and humor that will resonate best with themThat’s why Deluxe partnered with College Humor to create a video series and character (Duncan Steele) that will break through the clutter and spark discussionBecause much of this campaign is viral, it relies on consumers to share the informationwith friends and family – it must be entertaining to do thatAlthough not in Deluxe’s typical brand voice, this communication is strategically designed to help us change the public’s perception about check writingWe’re excited to launch this innovative program and are confident that it will be a successOur Social Media Press Release yielded over 118 million impressions.
Social marketing is more than telling your story on social properties…its also telling your story face to face.The tablet is our new best friend. In the B2B world, you never know exactly when an opportunity to have a conversation might arise. It could be a scheduled offsite meeting, at a conference or over the telephone. So, our Account team needs to be ready to tell that story anytime – anywhere.Another challenge that we find for our account team is the ability to communicate consistent messages due to the variety and complexity of our products. To help solve these challenges, we’ve developed iPad applications for each of our major product lines. These apps are interactive and visually interesting. Most include short product demos, use cases, customer video testimonials, proof points and even a lead gen form.We originally developed these apps for trade shows, but quickly found that they are a useful tool for our sales teams. We even have prospects and clients ask us to send them a link to the app so they can refer to the information later or socialize it with others in their organization.
Let’s face it. Like most c-level folks today, Banking executives have the attention span of a gnat.We’ve found that the best way to capture their interest is to provide them bite sized chunks of content – including infographics is a great way to reach visually engage an audience without overwhelming them with data.Infographics have become an important component to our content eco-system.
At Deluxe, we’ve used gamification techniques to engage the millennial audience that sells our products through the bank. Not only do these games raise awareness, but they influence sales behavior for a tough audience.Example One: Checks – Education & Awareness (5% increase in new account order penetration)Example Two: Incentives/sweepstakes for selling Visa gift cards (3% to 5% increase in card sales)Our learning:Create a buzz and competition between branches and bankers.Keep in contact. Engage them will compelling & fun messages.Works best for seasonality (back to school, holidays, moms/dads/grads)Keep it fresh. Mix up the games.
At Deluxe we manage anywhere between 60 to 100 events a year. We’ve found that social is a perfect way to reach our audience when we know they will be captive at a conference or trade show. A few examples of social tactics that we’ve found successful are…Refer & Win CampaignsTweet contests & twitter wallTweet-up
We formally began developing our social marketing strategy 18 months ago.Clearly defined strategyObtain buy-in from Executives and key stakeholders. Social what??Establishing the teamEffective PlanningSetting GoalsDeveloping assetsKeep focused – don’t boil the ocean. Get some small wins first to demonstrate program success.Review & Revise – use data to drive your strategy..