As technology advances at lightning-fast speeds, it can be difficult to set yourself apart and capture the attention of your most desirable leads. After all, the B2B tech space is packed with competition so how do you keep leads continually coming to you when your competitors keep stealing them away?
To capture attention and nurture your leads, it seems only fitting that you would turn to digital resources to reach out and make contact. Digital marketing specifically is where you should be turning. In fact, Adobe conducted a study that showed that more than half of all tech B2B sales will come from digital sources by 2020.
While email marketing is known by most as the best method to pursue, tech marketers only experience a 20% conversion rate using email, on average. But despite low conversion rates, email still delivers the best ROI , so it should be used in conjunction with other marketing channels.
The good news is that there are other choices open to the tech marketer who wants to strengthen his or her audience using other means of technology. Marketo showed that the average B2B company uses six channels to engage prospects. With email being one, it’s likely that social media comprises most if not all of the rest of the channels used most frequently by the hungriest of tech marketers.
Multiple Touchpoints
Like email, social media allows you to make frequent touchpoints with your leads over time. Done properly, social media ads look just like everyday newsfeed items on most social networks, like Facebook and Instagram. And in using social leads, these platforms can become invaluable for keeping your brand top-of-mind.
When you consider that most prospects are marketed to 10 times from the time they enter a funnel until they’re closed, social represents an excellent way to keep in constant touch.
Furthermore, tech marketers encounter the most difficulty in connecting with prospects at the right times, and social media allows you instant and personalized access to your audience in real time.
When you throw in the fact that 9 in 10 tech marketers rank “the improvement of their ability to measure and analyze marketing impact” as the top priority, and with all the access to social insights that you have with Facebook, Twitter, and other top platforms, the answer is clear. Social media is where tech marketers should be nurturing their leads once those individuals enter the sales funnel.
Which social channels should you employ in your tech marketing campaign? This digital checklist should help.
Facebook Marketing for B2B Tech
72% of online adults use Facebook, according to Pew Research Center, and that number has probably grown since that statistic was recorded. Hubspot found that 74% of those surveyed used Facebook for professional purposes. Given Hubspot’s audience, that’s not surprising. However, it shows an important trend – your buyers likely have Facebook profiles. With 76% of people using Facebook to find interesting content, you can’t afford to leave this social platform out of the mix.
Facebook ads will allow you to get into the news feeds of your leads quickly. Facebook ad retargeting can provide those additional touchpoints you need on Facebook after a lead has visited your website. Ensure your ads are accompanied by images, as Buzzsumo found that Facebook posts with images see more than double the engagement than those lacking a visual component.
As far as what to share, tech buyers tend to trust the advice of industry analysts. News pieces, press releases, and thoughtful articles will position you as a thought leader, allowing you to build trust and credibility with your leads over time.
Don’t just share third-party sources. Tech marketers are now seeing myriad benefits with “brand as publisher” strategies. When you provide free and targeted content to your buyers on Facebook, you end up nurturing your leads who may be seeking answers, and the beauty of this content strategy is that you do it in a hassle-free way.
Tech Marketing on LinkedIn
LinkedIn boasts an impressive regular user base of over half-a-billion professionals. With LinkedIn, you can search for your leads by company name, field of study, job title, groups they belong to, and even their age. With enough insights on your leads, you’ll be able to find and focus on the right ones to guide them further along your marketing funnel. You can also facilitate one-to-one content distribution using this method for greater effect.
The same content you share on Facebook can be shared on LinkedIn. But you are also encouraged to reach out to your leads from time to time individually to say hello and connect. While time-consuming, nothing can beat that personal touch. Join some LinkedIn groups that involve tech-based questions. Becoming a guru in a LinkedIn room can further position you as a thought leader, which can help you get seen and noticed on LinkedIn by the very tech buyers you’re targeting.
Twitter Marketing
Share your content on Twitter, also. Ensure that you use different headlines to target your audiences on the various platforms. However, be mindful of the length of the content you share on Twitter. Twitter accounts for 16% of referrals to longer articles from social media, and only 14% for shorter news pieces. Therefore, you’ll want to reserve your long-reads for the Twitterverse and your short reads for LinkedIn and Facebook.
Use as many social channels as you have time and resources for. Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and others are ripe for social campaigns targeting tech buyers. But don’t feel that you need six or more channels to engage your audience effectively. A ton of effort on a small number of channels can go a long way, especially when it comes to buyers with minuscule time and attention.
Segment Your Audience
Regardless of which social media channels you decide to use in your lead nurturing campaign, keep your leads segmented by interest and buying intent. You can do this by listening in on your leads’ conversations on the various networks, and by taking cues and engaging prospects along the way.
A segmented list is easier to target with the appropriate messaging, allowing you to stay relevant and on topic while giving your B2B tech audience what they want most.
Invest Your Time
Studies show that B2B companies that spend at least 6 hours per week on social media see 66% greater lead generation benefits. While your goal is to nurture leads, finding them is important too. Posting content that helps your audience on social media is a great way to find new leads, in fact, over 32% of marketers claimed to curate content daily. Choose the schedule that works for you. Whatever you do, make sure you eventually choose the schedule that your audience most responds to once those insights come in.
Consider also that if you can break the information barrier for leads when it comes to industry breaking news, innovative products, and other tech-centric headline-worthy material, your leads will soon come to your brand to discover what they most want to know.
Conclusion
If you can manage to become a social media leader in your space, McKinsey showed that you can potentially drive five times more revenue growth than your peers. What more motivation do you need? With enough effort nurturing your leads on social media, you’ll soon see that this is a highly effective method to entice tech buyers, especially when honed over time with useful insights and conversations with your growing audience.
Need help crafting your social strategy? Find out how the experts can help.
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