B2B marketing can be quite tricky because it doesn’t follow the same guidelines as traditional marketing. The strategies and techniques are different because you are now marketing to people who have the expertise and technical knowledge for assessing the product. However, you also need to revise your B2B marketing strategies and campaigns and take the current technological platforms into consideration. Another factor that impacts B2B marketing is that the purchase is not ultimately the decision of a single consumer; an entire team is put together for assessing features and the additional value offered before a buying decision is made.
Statistics have revealed that 62% businesses are using social media as an effective marketing tool and the number continues to increase every day. B2Bs have found social media to be immensely beneficial because it can help them raise brand awareness, encourage social shares, build trust with their audience and gain followers. For marketers in the B2B market, the success metrics are a bit different than traditional advertising as they are seeking effective lead generation, high click-through rates and conversions. Marketers need information that will enable them to gain insight into their clientele as well as their buying behavior so their strategies can be modified accordingly.
A large number of B2B marketing strategies fail on a regular basis. Nevertheless, even in this mire of uncertainty, there are a couple of gems who have succeeded in finding the perfect balance. Listed below are the top three B2B social media case studies that have turned out to be successful:
Case Study 1: Maersk Line
The use of social media by Maersk Line is an excellent example of how B2B organizations think ahead of the curve and take actions when designing their social media campaign. Maersk Line uses almost each and every social media tool and has established a significant presence across the popular social media platforms. The conventional B2B platforms have been fully embraced by Maersk Line from making catchy videos on Vimeo to posting intriguing photos on Instagram. The primary aim of these campaigns is to get closer to its customer base, get insight into the market and to boost customer satisfaction.
In order to achieve these goals, Maersk Line shifted its focus inwards and started delivering stories on how in operates every day behind the scenes. This included a wide array of information ranging from where its staff members are from to the booming sale of Kenyan avocados. In order to build and expand its audience, it increased its social media efforts and succeeded in gaining about 700,000 fans on Facebook alone. Their B2B marketing strategy on social media included asking the audience what they wanted and delivering exactly that.
The social media manager was abundantly clear that the brand was not trying to increase its sales through its social media efforts. Instead, they simply wished to increase the brand’s engagement with customers and to create value by leveraging employee expertise. This is one of the major reasons why Maersk Line’s social media strategy is so effective. The company has managed to revolutionize its B2B marketing campaigns and reaped the benefits as it approaches social media in a distinctive manner.
Case Study 2: PwC
From the very beginning, this campaign was a smart move as the PricewaterhouseCoopers BallotBriefcase has been used for 82 years for transferring the winners of the Academy Award to the Oscar ceremony. Last year, PwC used Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook for raising awareness about the important role that’s played by BallotBriefcase in the iconic ceremony. In essence, the briefcase was transformed into a fully-fledged superstar by the company and all through the use of social media. The weeks before the Oscars were spent in taking the briefcase on celebrity appearances, meet and greets and posing for photo-ops.
The purpose was to create awareness of just how the nominees of the Academy Awards go from the ballet sent in by voters to envelopes that are opened on the night of the Oscars. The role played by PwC in the Oscar ceremony was showcased and highlighted through social media and in doing so, the company was repositioning its brand for appealing to a younger demographic. The briefcase had been used by Neil Patrick Harris as a prop for a magic trick when he hosted the ceremony in 2015 and PwC chose to fade in the background and centered its campaign around the briefcase instead.
In the six weeks that led to the Oscars, Oscar trivia was shared by the diva-like Briefcase regarding the process of balloting and it also met with fans at events that were captured on Snapchat. Photos were also shared by PwC employees for expanding the campaign’s reach. The playful Briefcase campaign led to a significant increase in impressions within weeks. Mentions and impressions increased on Twitter as well and other social media networks too. In fact, they increased 136 times more than the previous campaigns conducted by PwC and all because of social media.
Case Study 3: Jobsite
Based in the United Kingdom, Jobsite is a professional recruitment site. After it realized that the traditional TV advertising was now boring in the eyes of millennials, it decided to come up with content that would enable it to connect with its target audience in a better way. This was made necessary because a number of businesses now wanted to employ these workers on top of cutting edge technology. Therefore, it decided to ditch the TV ads and went digital. A social media campaign titled ‘The Advantage’ was created, which was basically a play off the BBC version of ‘The Apprentice’.
This actually positioned the firm’s slogan ‘Real jobs for Real people’ in a creative and comic way. Within three months of the launch of this campaign, there was significant marketplace improvements for Jobsite. It turned out to be a strategic method for engaging with its audience because it was regarded as more approachable by the millennials. As Jobsite wished to continue this momentum, it also participated in pop culture conversations on Twitter and Facebook. For instance, they sent tweets linking Jobsite to the finale of the hit TV show ‘Sherlock’ and they also used appropriate and trending hashtags for drawing more attention to their campaign. Since then, the number of views of The Advantage video has exceeded 740,000 and nearly half of this has been fueled by social media engagement. This enabled Jobsite to boost its place in the market significantly as opposed to its competitors.
One thing that we can observe after studying the above mentioned social media case studies is that these brands did a copious amount of research before they launched their campaigns. This helped them in gaining insight into their target market so they could devise strategies that could be used in achieving them. Not only do you have to have a proper plan in mind, but marketing objectives also need to be defined clearly because this is the way of achieving success.
There is a great solution for students to get professional case study writing assistance at GetCaseStudy on any business and marketing topic. Also, there are plenty of automation tools available that B2B businesses can use, but finding good leads is the most stressful and time consuming part and the easiest and most effective way of doing so is to tap into the power of social media.
You must be logged in to post a comment.