I spoke at the United Benefit Advisors annual conference in Chicago on September 11/12, 2017, on the subject of how a B2B business (and even a smaller one) can make sense of social.
I tied the idea of social to the customer journey and showed how, along each step of the way, they could engage customers and potential customers with social...not just social media: social content, reviews, social thinking, and more.
10. the customer journey is:
non-linear
highly personal
interrupted constantly
noisy
a paradox of choice
completely unpredictable
in the social era,
11. myth #1:
busy business people don’t have time for the internet.
fact:
According to Google’s studies, 89% of B2B researchers
use the internet during the B2B research process
13. fact:
This is closer to the truth and it’s changing rapidly. According to
Google, nearly half of all B2B researchers are millennials + they
heavily influence purchase decisions.
14. The Shift in the B2B Researcher Demographic:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/
15. Employee influence on purchase decisions:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/
81% of non-
C-Suite
employees
influence
purchase
decisions.
17. HINT: I’m not talking about social media, though that is part of it.
18. ”
“
Nilofer Merchant
11 Rules for the Social Era
If the industrial era was about
building things, the social era is
about connecting things, people, and
ideas.
19. RULES FOR THE SOCIAL ERA:
1. EVERYTHING is social
2. The lines between social and professional
are blurred
3. The ‘consumer’ is no longer passive - they
are PROsumers
4. Sharing communicates identity - people
share what they want others to think they are
5. Relationships are more important than
ever. Transactional interactions will be
disintermediated by technology.
20. ARE YOU REALLY BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS?
TRANSACTIONAL
Only interact when you want
something (or when your CRM says to
reach out).
Focus on your value being coverage
and price.
Always Be Closing.
Customer service driven.
RELATIONAL
Really become part of your clients/
contacts lives. Care. Follow. Listen.
Focus on helping your clients figure
out and achieve their goals.
Always Be Listening.
Customer EXPERIENCE driven.
21. “You’re not in the insurance
business, you’re in the
EXPERIENCE business.”
Competing on price, coverage and service is a race to the bottom and AI/chatbots/
algorithms will outcompete you there every day.
26. 3 IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS:
1.
If you’re not at
enough
touchpoints along
the customer
journey, you don’t
exist.
3.
Insurtech will win
in the race to the
bottom of the
price/
convenience war.
Compete on
EXPERIENCE.
2.
You can’t say “we
don’t need social”
because
EVERYTHING is
social. It’s not a
tool, it’s a cultural
shift.
28. traditional b2b tactics:
Cold calling, professional networking, joining local
business groups, buying lists of prospects (to call
and email), advertising seminars/webinars,
encouraging referrals from clients and professional
connections, golf? etc.
32. a universe of tools to connect with your
audience (or at least stalk them)
if there was EVER a great use for social media, it is to learn more about your audience.
35. WHO ARE MY CUSTOMERS?
HOW DID THEY FIND ME?
(OR) HOW DID I FIND THEM AND
HAS THIS CHANGED?
WHY DID THEY CHOOSE ME?
WHAT WAS THEIR JOURNEY?
HOW HAS THIS CHANGED?
have you asked:
36. ”“
The aim of marketing is to know and
understand the customer so well the product
or service fits him and sells itself.
Peter Drucker,
Father of Management Theory
37. WE HAVE CRAZY POWERFUL DATA AT OUR FINGERTIPS:
1. Social Media Platform Analytics
2. Social Intelligence Tools
3. Social Listening
38. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM ANALYTICS
Social media platforms
offer up everything from
demographics to deeper
psychographics,
interests, and incomes
like Twitter analytics.
https://analytics.twitter.com/
39. SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE
Social Intelligence tools pull
data from social networks to
analyze interests and affinities
of audiences.
You can tell a lot about people
by who they explicitly follow
online.
(mostly not free, but mind-blowing
and make learning about your
audience instantaneous)
40. People Who Follow CFO Mag:
….tend to follow multiple business sources (and
entrepreneurs) and are interested in content on:
Financial Analysis, Analytical Skills, Budgeting,
Business Process Improvement/ Management, Risk
Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Leadership,
Strategic Planning + Financial Modelling.
41. SOCIAL LISTENING
There are several free
and inexpensive social
listening tools that help
you keep track of the
ongoing conversation
around #insurtech,
#digitalhealth, #HealthIT,
#HRtech and more.
42. 3 IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS:
1.
Listening is the
most important
function of social.
You’ve never had
so much insight
into your
audience!
3.
There are tons of
free tools to help
you figure out
your audience. All
you need to do to
use them is to
listen.
2.
You need a
strategy and that
strategy will come
from really
understanding
your audience.
44. 1. I know you
2. I’m looking for you
3. I’m comparing you to your
competition
4. I’m buying from you
5. I’m using your product
6. I’m reviewing you
THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
1.AWARE2.SEARCH
3.DECIDE
4.TRANSACT
5.USE
6.ADVOCATE
p.s. It is actually NOT as neat and clear as this, it just
looks that way to be pretty to look at.
47. AWARE
Customer’s state:
Isn’t looking for you, hasn’t
heard of you. Lots of other
things on their minds.
Another word for increasing
awareness is ‘prospecting’.
48. ACTIVELY RESEARCHING POTENTIAL
LEADS ON SOCIAL
Using social intelligence
tools - like LinkedIN’s
Sales Navigator - to
identify and ‘stalk’ potential
leads.
https://www.linkedin.com/sales
49. SOCIAL THAT LEADS TO
PROSPECTING
When online influencers share your
excellent online content with their
audience, creating a buzz.
51. SEARCH
Customer’s state:
Actively looking and researching for
a good option in your product
category.
It is better if you are already part of
the consideration (built awareness),
but there are other ways to get you
in the search path.
52. SOCIAL HELPING YOU GET FOUND WHEN THE CUSTOMER
IS RESEARCHING
Blog posts, YouTube videos,
Tweets and other fresh
content ranks very high in
Google Search results.
Zane Benefits is on PAGE 1 of
a search for “employee
benefits” because of their blog
content.
BLOG
CONTENT
!
55. MOST CUSTOMERS HAVE ALREADY DECIDED
BEFORE THEY CALL YOU
“Today's business buyers do not
contact suppliers directly until 57
percent of the purchase
process is complete.
The challenge for marketers is to be present
in these channels at all times with content
that educates buyers and helps guide
commercial decisions.”
B2B’s Digital Revolution, Think With Google
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/b2b-digital-evolution/
56. SOCIAL TACTICS THAT HELP SWAY THE CUSTOMER
TO CHOOSE YOU
When it comes to making a
decision, it’s not just about price.
If you have social content (helpful
videos and posts) and lots of
people talking about you positively,
it will help to steer the decision in
your favour.
58. Customer’s state:
Time to purchase! The
customer is having their first
experience with your
product.
TRANSACT
59. SOCIAL THAT CAN HELP THE
ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE
Helpful content can make the difference
between a new customer being lost and feeling
educated.
One of the videos in particular generated close to
$30,000 of revenue. “And it all had to do with the
fact that we were answering questions that, at the
time, weren’t even on the NYS [New York State]
Department of Insurance’s website,” (Ryan) Hanley
said.
State of Content Marketing: Insurance
Contently, July 1, 2015
https://contently.com/strategist/2015/07/01/state-of-content-marketing-insurance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyrt84STlgE
65. Every time you or a happy customer posts
online, you create another opportunity to
appear along another customer’s journey.
66. 3 Final Takeaways
1.
The customer’s
journey is
complex, non-
linear, and
CONSTANT. You
never know when
an impression can
be made.
3.
Dismissing social
as part of your
growth strategy, is
dismissing
multiple
opportunities.
Your competitors
won’t.
2.
No matter where
your potential
customers are on
their journey, you
can be there with
social. Social is
really great at
building trust.
67. ”“ Terry Golesworthy,
President of the Customer Respect Group
Offering ongoing advice is now critical with today’s
consumer choosing products and suppliers not on
the advice of a single expert at a single moment in
time, but on an accumulation of information from a
variety of sources over a period.
69. THANK YOU!
Tara Hunt, President
Truly Social Inc.
http://www.trulysocial.ca
http://www.youtube.com/tarahunt
http://twitter.com/missrogue
tara@trulysocial.ca