Developing Social Media Strategies for Every Stage of the Funnel

Jingcong Zhao, Content Marketing Manager

Teena Thach, Social Media Manager

Developing Social Media Strategies for Every Stage of the Marketing Pipeline

Agenda

1. How Social Media is influencing the B2B purchase process

2. The Roles of Social Media across the B2B customer lifecycle

3. Social Media Strategies for Each Stage of the Funnel and Examples

75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-Level/VP executives use social media to make purchasing decisions.

62% of B2B buyers would appreciate being contacted at the right time with relevant information and opportunities.

Online professional networks are the #1 information preferences of buyers in the final stage of the purchase decision.

Social Media Has Huge Potential for B2B

Earliest Stage: News-oriented social media (i.e. Twitter) is the most popular social media used for general info gathering.

Middle Stage: Desire for credibility increases. Third-party experts rise to the top. Online professional networks rise to the 4th position

Final Stage: Need to trust in their decision. Turn to online professional networks (i.e. LinkedIn)

In final stage of the purchasing process, when stakes are highest, online professionals networks are #1 information preference of buyers

Social Media and the Marketing Funnel

Attract

Convert

Close

Broadcast Marketing

Direct Marketing

Content

Proactive Outreach

Attract

Attract the right audience Be helpful & topical

Share your own research

Attract the right audience

Showcases your product. Broad Appeal. Timely

Attract the right audience Take a stand on key issues “Newsjack” – association with trending

topic

Attract the Right Audience

Make your target audience explicit in your posts

Promote Your Product Trial Targeted Events

Tips:

1. Get other people involved (employees, Twitter Chats)

2. Share your company culture

3. Build Anticipation

4. Keep the content coming

Attract the right audience Pin your most important tweets

Events

CommunitiesLocation

Interests

PublicationsJob Title

Proactively Reach Out to Your Target Audience

Prospect Insights from Twitter

Real-time updates:• Events• Conversations• Pain-points

Job title

Interests

Community

Location

DiscoverA company looking for startups and early-stage tech companies used this criteria...

...and found over 5,500 leads on Twitter

Twitter handles

Industry keywords

Event hashtags

Light Touch(follow, like post)

Engage with prospects on their terms

Medium Touch(direct message, comment)

Heavy Touch(phone call, email conversation)

Natural Flow of Engagement

Follow up with social leadsConnect your social media investment to your systems of record.

See prospect’s journey from first social touch to close.•Campaign Name •Social Network•URL •Social Profile of Lead •Click Time•Subsequent social activities

Example Guide: http://community.oktopost.com/knowledgebase/articles/280167-how-to-set-up-the-marketo-integration

Integration Reporting

Lead Nurturing

Social media provides another channel for lead nurturing

Near 80% of marketers say that their email open rates don’t exceed 20% (The State of B2B lead Nurturing Survey, Oracle)

Social media activities = Audience Insights

Use social insights to send real time emails

InterestsHot

Topics

Industry influencers

Research questions

Industry Events

Socedo’s results on real-time emails triggered based on hashtag engagement

Hashtag Emails Sent Open Rate Clicks CTR Unsubscribe

#MKTGNation 14 sent 41.7% open 3 clicks 25% CTR 0 unsub

#ContentMarketing 200 sent 45.2% open 10 clicks 5.4% CTR 0 unsub

#LeadGeneration 50 sent 54.5% open 3 clicks 6.8% CTR 0 unsub

New MQLs & Customers

Social activity data = real-time buying signals

● A click on a social post = a click in an email campaign or a paid ad

● A retweet = an endorsement of your content

● A follow = a proactive step to subscribe to your content = a blog subscriber

● A direct message reply = an email reply / a webinar register

● Followers of influencers in your space are good leads

Use social data for accurate lead scoring

Use social data for accurate lead scoring

#DF16 23 leads 15 first action

#INBOUND16 3 leads 1 first action

#MKTGNation 71 leads 4 first action

@SiriusDecisions 154 Leads 56 first action

Marketo 680 leads 333 first action

Socedo Results

What social keywords and handles are bringing in the most MQLs and Opportunities?

Socedo Database - usage across database - total leads 11,199 over 90 days

Keyword MQL to Opp Opp to Won Total Won Total Revenue

#contentmarketing 17.50% 18.80% 3 $5,000

@SocedoApp 17.20% 23.10% 9 20000

@AseemB 15.40% 13% 3 1000

@Marketo 3.80% 16.70% 1 1000

@Insightpool 17.90% 20% 1  1000

Hubspot 17.50% 8.30% 2 2000

Pardot 15.40% 0 0 0

@HeinzMarketing 14.50% 15.80% 3 10000

@salesforce 15.40% 12.50% 1 1,000

@kevincyu 17.90% 19% 4 2000

@adamiswriting 23.70% 7.10% 1 1000

@akashbad 14.80% 12.50% 2 15000

Example:

• Leads who haven’t visited your website in last two weeks

• No emails opened in last 30 days

• Mentioned relevant keywords related to your product space in last 7 days

Re-engage with cold leads on social

Social Media and the Customer Lifecycle

Engaging Content Targeting based on keywords Attract

Convert

Close

Lightly engage with prospects through a series of social touches

Promote gated content to capture new leads in your marketing automation system

Enhance lead records with social media activity, enabling lead scoring, lead nurturing & relevant messaging

Jingcong Zhao Teena ThachLearn more at blog.socedo.com

Questions?