What goes into driving prospects to your website and getting them to read content that ultimately turns them into customers? Well, one answer would be “a lot”... a more complete answer would be content creation and promotion, SEO work, paid advertising, website optimization, third-party validation and analyzing the success of all of this.
Or, I suppose I could’ve just said a well thought-out Inbound Marketing strategy can accomplish this.
But, do you know what’s missing from the list above as a key component of Inbound Marketing? Social Media.
Social media is a place where your tech company has one of the best opportunities to tell a compelling story about why a potential buyer would want to work with you. Through bite-sized content on a native brand or executive feed (as well as engagements with media, influencer, and customer social content) brands have the most opportunity to show their value - as the opportunities are only limited by your ability to produce content and your prospects’ affinity for these channels.
Prioritizing Social Media in Your B2B Tech Inbound Program
Although many tech brands overlook social media as an essential part of an inbound marketing program, I don’t want you to make the same mistake. Here are 3 reasons why you should prioritize social media in your inbound program:
According to HubSpot, marketers see value in social media efforts increasing traffic and lead generation, which are both essential outcomes of inbound marketing- generally correlated directly with each other if messaging is targeted correctly and your website is optimized for conversions.
Speaking of targeting, social media presents numerous hyper-targeted advertising strategies that allow brands to promote their story to the most relevant audience possible. For example, on LinkedIn Ads, you can get as specific as targeting by job title, industry, company and more. Talk about hitting your target persona!
In fact, Sprout Social notes that 83% of B2B marketers use social advertising, considering it to be the most successful paid avenue next to search engine ads.
Social media is a relationship-building platform where brands can provide customer service, support, resources and more. In the world of B2B tech sales, the buying cycle can be a long, arduous process. But, by providing valuable content and resources on a public-facing social channel, brands have the opportunity to speed up the sales cycle by gaining a prospect’s trust before a discussion with a sales rep even occurs.
With less than 30% of B2B buyers even wanting to talk to a sales person, and 62% of those buyers making a purchase decision based solely on digital content, brands don’t have a choice but to leverage social media in their inbound strategy.
As our Panorama approach demonstrates, generally 8-12 digital content touchpoints can drive a B2B prospect to become a customer. Social media should comprise multiple of these touchpoints in your inbound strategy.
Wondering how to complete the missing link in your ROI-driven PR and marketing efforts? Check out our Inbound Marketing Playbook.