Three (social media) strategies every B2B marketer should know

First of all, anything goes online. SEO works, ads work, and anything social works. But how well it works depends a great deal on how it is done. That is exactly why most B2B (business to business) social strategies fail: most companies copy and endlessly recycle the same uninspired promotional tactics, which only bring mediocre results.

The truth is not that social media doesn’t work. Social media works! You just need to change your mindset and keep a few tips in mind, including the ones below:
Grab attention with strategies that get to the point (clutter-cutting content), not with the nonsense that standard tips for growing sales usually involve.
Most of the time, sales leaders on social networks all use pretty much the same strategies, and you often come across identical posts where all that changes is a word here and there, supposedly to avoid plagiarism, which is still obvious. The brand changes, but the message stays the same. And strikingly similar, if not identical.

In fact, sales experts all apply the same tactics and the same tricks, which the new influencers are thrilled to endorse, but which actually work very little, if at all. Precisely because everyone is relying on the same nonsense. Admittedly, it can work, but only to a small extent. On LinkedIn, for example, you still have the option of chatting with friends and commenting on each other’s posts, which can artificially boost organic reach (or what is left of it). You can also swap an actual post for a URL, which may bring in a few more percent. Even so, these cannot be meaningful distribution strategies for drawing attention to the brand you promote; they amount to settling for crumbs. But why settle for crumbs when you can do things differently?

A video that went viral, made by an out-of-the-box sales growth specialist, used the very same uninspired sales messages seen on social networks and approached shoppers in a mall the way those messages approach people. The result was funny, hugely popular and had an enormous impact.

The video gathered tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments. It was neither expensive nor particularly difficult to make, yet it went viral and caught the attention of tens of thousands of people. Precisely because it ignored the old methods and was clearly different. Anything that is the polar opposite of the old, tired promotional strategies most people are already fed up with works much better. And the example above confirms it: almost 88,000 views, over 600 comments and nearly 1,500 likes.

Targeting, qualifying and closing the sale with social ads
For B2B companies that use the SaaS (software as a service) distribution model, much of their social activity is paid. A large part of clients’ budgets goes into the effort of managing social media in the conversion process, that is, in the act of selling.
On LinkedIn, for example, standard ad formats are rarely used. First of all, because they are too expensive, ineffective and almost invisible. Instead, companies use the LinkedIn Insights Pixel to learn who visits them and why, so they can target those visitors later. With this feature you can see everything, from job titles and fields of activity to industries and specific roles on each page. You can also make use of the virtual marketing service (VPs) to build a campaign tailored to exactly the people you are interested in. These campaigns are then picked up by LinkedIn Matched Audiences, a kind of custom alternative to Facebook Audiences, to finally reach the right audience, which is exclusively B2B.

Directive (one of the leading enterprise search marketing agencies that companies trust to grow their business) will use this audience for ad campaigns and to target the leaders who run the social activity that drives conversion, while steering clear of old-school approaches to advertising content.

Another technical tactic is to advertise on Quora as if it were content, subtly promoting e-books or guides and using the same search intent that Google Ads relies on.

One last tip, but not the least: third-party sites are social too, showing comments and recommendations from dozens of users for most specialized software. Even so, ads are still used to gain ground and determine positions in the rankings. For example, if you go to a site like Capterra to look for specialized software, the first positions in the list are not the free alternatives but the sponsored ones.
These can be the most effective and also the cheapest solutions for specialized sales (SQLs), especially since personal approaches to digital solutions can be disruptive.
Increasing customer lifetime value (CLV) by creating daily engagement

Facebook groups are the groups you probably don’t use very often. Admittedly, they are not that powerful, being little more than private forums. Fine for Pug Clubs (Pick up Group), but not for business. Well, when you know how to use them, the way the AdEspresso team does, they can be valuable.

Most of the marketing they do on Facebook relies on groups. The AdEspresso University group, which is open only to customers, has over six thousand members and more than 75% monthly engagement. While many pages can barely get 0.001% of their posts in front of their own fans, in groups the posts end up being seen by most members.

AdEspresso University is a members-only group based on a product subscription, and this restriction has an enormous influence on the overall quality of the people in the group. If it were open, anyone could join, and even if that looks like a win, it isn’t necessarily one. It would also mean a lot of spam, which would inevitably lead many members to leave the group. That is why it is better closed. Not secret, but closed: people can see that it exists, but they have to sign up to take part.

After signing up for AdEspresso, customers receive an email with the link they need to join the group, at which point the Facebook app can ask for some information about the future member, such as the account ID and a few other specific details. The admin can also use this information to make moderation easier, simply by adding it to the database.

Next, to manage the account you can use Hootsuite, which has the advantage of minimizing interaction on the page, since most of it is automated. People who leave messages are automatically redirected to Customer Service. And if it really is a customer, you can choose to reply personally. Choosing this option for all messages, however, takes a great deal of time. It can be done that way. Still, the best approach is to let the Facebook groups do it, precisely because these days everything happens behind the scenes.

Conclusion:
B2B companies can use social media to drive their sales. The trick is not to blindly follow the same outdated scripts. Those who want to be seen as visionary brands have to bet on surprise and interesting content, not stick to the old promotional recipes built around the most boring things, such as principles and objectives.

Those who truly want to run a business, not just collect fans, have to work twice as hard at targeting the right people and crafting the message. And if they want to keep their customers for life, they have to nurture a community that like-minded people want to be part of. For that, you need neither fans nor templates.